


skeleton in the closet

by hwngie



Category: ENHYPEN (Band), I-LAND (Korea TV)
Genre: A couple of besties, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Angst, Fluff, General hijinks, Hufflepuff Jake, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Multi, Roommates, Slytherin Sunghoon, TOO MANY COMMAS, f--- hoonie's aunt we all h8 hoonie's aunt, friends to lovers to enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers (repeat), gryffindor jay, he has no self-preservation, he's a fawn btw, hufflepuff jungwon, jake calls hoon hoonie way too much, jakehoon r a couple, jay has a love-hate relationship with hoons pout, metamorphmagus hoon, plot holes are rampant, possibly illegal amounts of yearning, rated s for shenanigans, ravenclaw heeseung, ravenclaw ni-ki, side note sunghoon is bad @ magic, slytherin sunoo, sunghoon's love language: violence, the cabbage patch doll villain origin story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29162667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwngie/pseuds/hwngie
Summary: new roommates, possible new love interests, and an obsessive aunt in the form of a dementor. (sunghoon's year isn't going so great.)
Relationships: Park Jongseong | Jay & Park Sunghoon, Park Sunghoon & Shim Jaeyoon | Jake
Comments: 30
Kudos: 65





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> i'm so sorry 2 those of u who are coming back after like a month :[ i lost inspiration 4 a while n writer's block was kicking my butt so i decided to rewrite some of the chapters. to reader witty_lasagna i'm esp sorry D:

“did you hear?” jake sat heavily next to sunghoon on the rotting bench in the courtyard. he dropped his pile of books on the ground, completely disregarding the perpetually damp cobblestones beneath them. 

“‘bout what?” sunghoon asked around an enormous bite of tapioca pudding. 

“the main sewage pipe in the gryffindor common room burst.” jake reached over and dipped his finger into the pudding, stealing a dollop while the owner of the dish looked on in disbelief. "what?" jake tilted his head.

“you know this is my favorite; it’s the only decent food they’ve got here,” sunghoon said through a pout.

“you don’t like the sandwiches?” 

“they’re alright, i s’pose,” sunghoon shrugged, “boring, though. plus the bread’s always soggy.”

“oh. i kinda liked ‘em. the sogginess just adds to the appeal.” 

“that’s gross,” sunghoon scrunched up his nose, “anyway, what about the gryffindor common room?” he moved on from the pudding to his toast and marmalade. he handed his treacle tart to jake, like he always did. for reasons unknown, jake loved the plain, flaky treacle tarts the school provided rather than the higher-quality ones his parents sent. 

“main water pipe burst. apparently no one was around cause it made a whole mess. flooded the whole place. professor kang is going insane trying to get everyone out.” 

pensively chewing his toast, sunghoon furrowed his eyebrows. “where’re they goin’?” jake tilted his head, resembling a pet dog. 

“oh, the gryffindors. they’re temporarily moving in with other houses. we’re s’posed to go check the great hall after lunch to see who we’re paired up with. i hope i get the one i know… what’s his name? i met him in organic studies in my first year.” sunghoon abruptly stood, tossing his coat over his shoulders and leaving the relative shelter of the drooping awning. cold rain pelted him, immediately soaking his hair so it was plastered to his forehead. jake trotted along beside him, still going on about his long-lost gryffindor friend. 

“by the way, where are we going?” he asked, glancing up at sunghoon. he’d had the forethought to wear a hooded coat to avoid the shower. 

“checking the great hall. i swear to the stars, if i have to share...” sunghoon wrinkled his nose, imagining some inelegant, graceless gryffindor knocking potted plants from their precarious perches on his shelves, tracking mud inside, _snoring_. he shuddered. he had a _routine_ , for merlin’s sake.

“your room is huge, hoon. even if you do get assigned a roomie, you’ll never see them,” jake pointed out. sunghoon hated that he had a point, but still resented the idea of having to share the tower with anyone. 

he’d gotten the north tower for housing: the tallest spire on the school grounds, solely through his parents money, his determination, and a bit of grovelling to professor kim. 

nobody but him (occasionally accompanied by jake) ever went up there, mostly because of the eerie rumors surrounding the tower, and sure, the stairwell did have horrendously large spiders that made him retreat to professor kim’s office in early morning hours to get her to kill them, but it was his awful staircase. 

another minor setback was the ivy, enchanted around the doorframe to keep guard. she (yes, she, as sunghoon had been introduced to her before moving in) was very particular about who she allowed inside, and had immediately taken a liking to sunghoon and a passionate hatred to anyone else who even stood outside the door. he dimly wondered how she would feel about a new roommate, no matter how temporary. 

“you’re gonna get sick cause of this, you know,” jake snapped him out of his thoughts, opening a side door to the hall and ushering him inside, “never dressing for the weather.” 

sunghoon found himself facing the bustling hall. students were swarming around the announcement boards, groaning and cheering and generally making _too much noise_. jake, sensing his uncertainty, grabbed his wrist and dragged him forwards before he could back out. after tripping over a ravenclaw’s platform boots, they ended up directly in the epicenter of the commotion, staring at a lengthy, printed excel form in alphabetical order. 

jake slid his finger over the names, “park… park… park… there.” he frowned. “the printer kinda ran out of ink here, but you got park- park jong… seong.” he glanced up at sunghoon to gage his reaction. 

“i have no idea who that is.” he sniffed. 

“see, i knew you were getting sick. i’ll go get our bags, and you go up to your room to get dry robes on. i think classes are cancelled for the rest of the day, so just sit up there and sulk like a little kid and wait for your new roommate.” 

“i don’t _sulk,_ ” he protested weakly, but jake was already gone, disappearing into the crowd again. 

so sunghoon nervously made his way out of the throng, apologizing profusely whenever he bumped shoulders or stepped on toes, and he shuffled up to his room, and he brooded. he frowned as he changed into dry clothes, he pouted as he put water on to boil, and he sighed as he stared out the window, keeping watch for anyone heading for his stairwell. 

after a few minutes, he got bored and turned on the little radio his parents had sent him. technically it was considered contraband by the school, and it only picked up two stations, but there was nobody around to snitch and it provided decent background music. elvis’ voice crackled through, although staticy. he sat on the windowsill in relative gloominess for two incoherent songs before spotting a small figure making their way up the walk to his stairwell. sitting up in anticipation, he focused a bit more and realized it was just jake, on his way with their bags. 

he got up to pour another cup of tea for him, feeling guilty about him going and fetching their bags. he set the teapot on the end table before shoving his fathers old uni jumper over his head. just in time, as well, because jake rang the makeshift doorbell. they’d made it out of a string and a little bell because the ivy, for whatever reason, had an intense, burning, passionate hatred for jake, more than any other student or professor. well, perhaps she had a reason. school rules prohibited students from other houses to visit, and she was particularly adamant about it. 

either way, she’d grown at least tolerant of jake’s frequent visits, just sometimes wrapped a single tendril around his ankle to trip him up every once in a while. sunghoon opened the door and let him in. the ivy trailed behind him for a few steps before retreating when sunghoon frowned at her disapprovingly. 

“did you sulk enough? cause i don’t wanna just sit here and watch you pout.” jake selected a teacup; the one with gold engravings and the massive chip in the side that made it impossible to fill it more than halfway. sunghoon flopped onto-- more like into-- the mushy leather armchair in the corner and shook his head, slowly sinking into the spongy cushion.

“still sulking. going on strong.” 

“it’s only for like, a week or two while they fix the plumbing,” jake patted his knee, genuinely sympathetic. his kindness seemed almost sarcastic, to sunghoon, still a bit unused to all the _touching_ , pats on the back and shoulder bumping and his least favorite, head pats. “you’ll be alright. it’s not the end of the world.”

“but it is.” 

“is not.”

“is too.”

“hoon.” jake sighed. “you need new friends anyway. maybe jongseong will be perfectly fine. you’re acting like he’s someone off diagon alley.” 

“i don’t need new friends! i have plenty,” sunghoon defended himself, “and for all i know he is from diagon alley.” 

“he’s most definitely not. he’s probably just a normal gryffindor who’s at worst a little grumpy cause his dorms got flooded with sewage. and i’m like the only person you were brave enough to talk to, so i’m pretty much your only friend.” jake finally sat on the futon, hyperaware of the wilting, potted lilies balanced next to him, careful not to knock them off.

“i have other friends,” sunghoon went back to pouting, even crossing his arms for effect,“there’s the kid i was partnered with in ancient lit.” 

“really? what’s their name?” 

“... i dunno.” 

“if you don’t know their name, you’re not friends.” jake sighed again, more heavily this time. 

“yeah we are!” sunghoon rolled over in the chair so that he was facing jake, “we just never introduced ourselves and now i’m scared to ask for his name cause then i’d seem inattentive and he’ll probably hate me.”

“i’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but my point stands, you need to make new friends instead of locking yourself up here all the time. you’re like rapunzel but you don’t have an evil witch keeping you up here, it’s just your chronic fear of rejection.” jake finished his tea and just stared expectantly at sunghoon, seemingly waiting for him to explain himself. sunghoon just blankly stared back, unsure of what to respond with. 

after a few awkward seconds of weighted silence, jake took his boots off, tipping them so the gathered water from outside dripped into the pot of lilies. “you need to water these more. they’re all dying.” 

“they’re fine.” 

“they’re dying.” 

“i know. _they’re fine_ ” sunghoon hung his head off of the arm of his chair. jake snorted and slung his bag over his shoulder, moving behind the ungroomed bonsai willow to get to the kitchenette. 

“can i borrow some twine for my books?” he asked, holding out the spool so that sunghoon could see. 

“mm.” 

“not sure if that was a yes or a no but thanks.” 

“anyway, when is he s’posed to get here? should i clean or something?” sunghoon wondered aloud, looking around. 

“they get released after they save what they can of their stuff from their dorms... and there’s no amount of cleaning that can help this place,” jake reemerged with his stack of tied books. 

“i’ll walk you back to your dorms and then stop by prof. kims,” sunghoon decided, “she’ll let me borrow some cleaning stuff. she loves me.” 

//

“i hate you.” professor kim groaned as soon as sunghoon knocked on her office door. it swung open, revealing her in her usual outfit; grey overalls, boots, and an overcoat, her wand carelessly tucked behind her ear. “what now? got another spider for me?”

“...yeah, it’s in the second floor window, made a web an’ everything. it’s huge and terrifying,” professor kim glared at him, “but it’s not why i’m here this time! i don’t have any cleaning supplies. like, at all.” 

“okay? they sell them at the general store across the front hall across the second courtyard. now shoo.”

“but it’s raining.” he whined, trying to look as pitiful as he could. professor kim visibly caved, throwing her head back and biting back an exasperated scream. “does that mean yes?” 

she pushed past him, muttering something sunghoon couldn’t make out.

“fine. FINE. fine, fine fine! this is the last time you ransack my supply closet, you hear me?” she stomped down the hall in front of him, still murmuring. as soon as she unlocked the doors and opened them, assorted bottles, cleaning wipes, dusting wands, and a mop fell out onto the floor. they’d all obviously been haphazardly returned to the closet by the previous user. 

“uhm.” he looked over at her.

“you’re a headache, you know that?” she tossed a rag she’d had over her shoulder to weakly hit him on the shoulder. 

“mikyeong?” somebody called from the next hall over. 

“over here!” she chirped, voice suddenly about five pitches higher and significantly less murderous. sunghoon scrunched up his face. 

“ah, there you are,” professor im appeared around the corner, still in her purple house robes. it was apparent she’d just gotten out of teaching defense against the dark arts from the way her face was soot-smudged and her eyebrows were a bit thinner than sunghoon remembered. “head professor bae is giving us an extended break after the whole thing with the gryffindor common room. i was wondering if you’d like to come with me to get some tea?” 

“sure! sure. yeah, that sounds fine,” professor kim replied with poorly concealed enthusiasm, “just. gimme a second, alright?” she crouched next to sunghoon and her usual stormy expression came back. “lock up when you’re done,” she handed him a neon green lanyard with about a trillion similar keys on it, “the mop goes in the corner, the dusters go on the hooks on the inside of the doors. put everything back with the labels facing out or i’ll never kill any spiders for you ever again.” 

“okay, good luck with your date.” sunghoon whispered. professor kim looked taken aback for a moment before genuinely grinning. “and you’ve got lipstick on your teeth.” he pointed out quietly. she fixed it, then bared her teeth again for a moment. 

“did i get it?” she asked, looking concerned. 

“yeah, you’re fine now.”

“thanks. good luck with your new roommate.” professor kim stood and hurried over to professor im, skipping out of view around the corner. sunghoon occupied himself with organizing the closet, shoving what he needed in the front pocket of his father’s worn jumper and following professor kim’s instructions. he scribbled a note on a piece of scrap paper asking professor kim to ‘please remember the spider who moved into my window, thank u’ and tucked it into the placard on her office door. after trying almost all of the keys on the lanyard, he finally managed to get the supply closet locked. 

discouraged to see that it was still raining, he ducked his head and splashed through the courtyard to his tower again, hopping in a few puddles on his way even though his socks were squishing water between his toes and he despised the feeling. 

giving the new resident arachnid a wide berth (he was terrified, okay? it was normal.) by pressing himself against the railing and inching past, he took the stairs by two to get back in time. the ivy greeted him and reached out to briefly slide along his hair, like she was petting him. it was a little weird, he’d admit, but at least she wasn’t trying to wrap him up again.

he settled on the old country station, this time, to try calming his nerves. a stranger would be arriving soon, and he had to appear completely put together, as if none of his plants were dying, he had an abundance of friends, and he didn’t have a perpetual cold, and he most definitely didn’t have a cursed, terrifying, problematic, awfully inconvenient secret that burned in his throat every time he tried telling anyone. he shook his head and went back to wiping the windows. that was for another time, or else he’d work himself into a panic separate than the one he was currently working himself into. he needed to set some time aside later tonight to panic about The Secret. maybe from ten to midnight. he’d need at least two hours for that one. 

risking an anxious glance at the grandfather clock, he startled at the fact that it was almost three. surely the gryffindor would be on his way. he shoved all of his laundry into the hamper and kicked it into the closet, slammed the doors shut to conceal the awful mess of keepsake boxes, old diaries, blankets, and sweaters, rinsed out all of his teacups-- since when did he have so many-- and splashed water into as many of his potted plants as he could, just to keep them looking acceptably wilted, not like they’re all on the verge of death (which they were). 

after deeming it all acceptable, he finally stood back and just changed out of one worn jumper into another, pulling the sleeves down over his hands and running them over the dustiest shelves. with the background music of some dismayed muggle singer wailing about someone ‘taking her man’, he sat on his windowsill and pulled his knees up to his chest, watching out the window to the path leading to his tower.

finally, someone emerged from the doors across the courtyard, running through the muddy grass with a book held over his head to shield himself from the rain. he slid across the concrete, nearly falling at his front door, before coming to a stop.

pressing his face against the glass and fogging up the window, he peered down and watched them tentatively knock on the door to the stairs before attempting to enter. amused, he watched his guest struggle for a few more moments before the door swung open.

after a minute, there came a shout from the entryway. sunghoon unfolded himself from his perch and opened the door to reveal his new roommate, caught up in the ivy. 

“let go of him, please.” sunghoon asked, and the ivy reluctantly withdrew, significantly slower than he would’ve liked. 

“hey...” the guest adjusted his bag around his shoulder, warily eying the ivy, who was still shaking threateningly. 

“please leave him be,” sunghoon asked the ivy before turning to his new roommate, “you can come in. sorry.” he absentmindedly tugged on his bracelet for a moment before realizing it, then went to chewing the inside of his bottom lip as the guest surveyed the dorm. 

“cool,” he said, since there wasn’t much else to say, “i’m jay. by the way, there was a spider in your stairwell. i brought it outside for you, figured she could move out.” 

sunghoon decided that maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he thought. 

//

sunghoon bounced from one foot to the other while he watched jay look around. he couldn’t decipher his expression, whether he was mildly impressed in the dormitory or disappointed but keeping it politely veiled.

“is that elton john?” he suddenly tilted his head once, not unlike jake, towards the radio on the windowsill. 

“oh, uhm, i dunno. maybe.” sunghoon tugged on the sleeves of his jumper again. “i don’t really pay attention to it. if it’s bothering you i can turn it off?” he offered, making a mental note that jay seemed to be familiar with muggle singers, or at least this elton john one. 

“you don’t have to be so jumpy,” jay chuckled, “and it’s fine; i like this song.” he went back to surveying the main room, quietly humming along to the music.

“sorry.” sunghoon apologized, although not quite sure what for, and slowly backed up a few steps, hiding behind the bonsai willow to face the kitchenette and his abundance of clean teacups. so far, jay seemed perfectly normal. jake was right, although sunghoon would never admit it. he selected his favorite teacup-- white with painted pink flowers-- and set some water on to boil. 

“hey,” jay popped his head around the corner, startling sunghoon and nearly making him drop the fine china, “sorry about that. where am i gonna… y’know… sleep?” 

“oh, sorry. sorry, the futon is open? i mean, if you’d like the bed that’s fine, but i’d kind of planned--”

“alright, thanks.” jay disappeared again, and sunghoon sighed, berating himself for being so awkward. he desperately needed to work on his people skills. 

after making his cup of hibiscus tea, and a plain green tea for jay (since he didn’t know what the other boy liked yet), he remembered he had yet to return all the cleaning supplies to professor kim. jay was making himself comfortable on the futon, picking clothes and books and whatnot from his backpack. 

“i have to go for a few minutes,” sunghoon announced quietly, “if that’s alright.”

“yeah. that’s fine, it’s your dorm.” jay shrugged, not looking up from his bag. sunghoon pretty much fled his dorm, clutching the bag of cleaning supplies to his chest and nearly falling down the spiral staircase. briefly glancing at the windowsill that used to house the spider, he was pleasantly surprised that jay had also gotten rid of the web. reaching the bottom floor, he realized the rain had turned into a depressing drizzle. 

the mud in the courtyard smushed under his feet as he unsteadily traipsed through it, trying to avoid the worst patches. briefly glancing up at the sky to silently curse the skies for bringing this weather, his gaze caught on a dark figure on the covered bridge to his left. he blinked, trying to get a better view, but it ducked away and disappeared. significantly more paranoid now, he hurried to the school doors and managed to get inside, getting flecks of mud all over his good slacks. 

“park?” professor kim poked her head out of her office door. “is everything alright? you look more terrified than usual.” 

“fine,” sunghoon huffed, “just-- something weird. it’s probably nothing, professor.” professor kim narrowed her eyes in suspicion but shrugged. 

“... alright. gimme my stuff back, thief, and tell me all about your new roomie.” 

“only if you tell me about your date.”

“that’s confidential, sorry,” she shrugged, “now spill. is he terrible? ugly? annoying?” 

“i’ve known him for like two minutes, professor, i dunno,” at her prompting gestures, he continued, “he’s not as terrible as i thought, he’s not ugly, and he’s only a bit annoying.”

“sounds like you can make a friend for once! i’m so proud of you, growing up and… and meeting new people instead of being friends with your pitying teachers.” she wiped a fake tear from her eye.

“hey! i have other friends!” 

“park, i’ve known you since the first day of academy and i’ve only ever seen you moping around on your own.” she raised an eyebrow. “the spiders in the stairwell are the only things keeping you company at this point, and you come here begging me to kill ‘em. such a slytherin.” 

“oh, by the way, i don’t need you to come kill this one anymore. the roommate relocated her outside for me.” 

“sweet. you need to get back before it gets too dark.” professor kim took the bundle of cleaning supplies and reached up to pat him on the shoulder. “jeez, you’ve gotta eat more,” she widened her eyes at herself. “ugh, you make me sound like a grandma. get out of here.” 

“i make you sound like a grandma cause you’re ancient,” sunghoon joked, “okay, okay, i’m going.” he managed to avoid most of her playful slaps, backing out of range.

“yeah, you’d better run. shoo.” 

“see you tomorrow!” he waved over his shoulder before reluctantly heading back outside. after a fearful scan of the courtyard and the covered bridge to look for the figure, he decided the coast was clear. still uneasy, he hopped over puddles and yanked the door to his tower open, slamming it behind him and locking it. triple-checking that it was locked and closed all the way, he sighed and slowly made his way upstairs. the ivy seemed to check him over, then patted him on the head again on his way inside. 

“oh, you’re back.” sunghoon just nodded at jay and shed his coat, tugging his sleeves over his hands again and fiddling with the threads. what was the thing on the bridge? it was probably just another student, he reassured himself, but what kind of student was that tall? the thing had come up to the top of the railing. it had to be at least two feet taller than sunghoon himself. he shivered and came back to his senses, realizing jay had been warily eyeing him while he thought. 

“are you… usually like this?” he asked, sounding a bit nervous. sunghoon was unsure of how to reply, so he just shook his head before heading to his armoire. he gathered his pajamas and slippers and quickly decided that he could take a shower in the morning. well, that depended on whether jay was a night-shower person or a morning-shower person, which meant that he’d have to talk to him again. 

“uhm, do you shower in the morning or at night?” he peered around a palm fern. 

“doesn’t matter to me.” jay shrugged.

“mm.” sunghoon changed behind his paper curtain and shuffled into the tiny bathroom. it was really only big enough for one person at a time. jay ended up squeezing past him to wash his face, so sunghoon pressed himself into the corner to give him room, brushing his teeth. he ended up regretfully swallowing his toothpaste rather than asking jay to move so that he could spit it out. 

heading back to bed, he turned on his nightlight. he hardly used it unless he was particularly anxious or scared or just lonely. it’s light filtered through the leaves of a bird of paradise mini-tree, covering his dorm in dark green. he laid on his back and stared at the ceiling while jay quietly moved around, unfolding the futon, closing the stubborn window by the kitchenette that sunghoon could never get all the way shut, and finally settling into bed. 

after a while, finding he couldn’t sleep, he concluded that now was as good a time as any to sort out his problem. jay was asleep judging by the quiet snoring coming from the futon, so sunghoon silently slipped out of bed and got out of his pajamas, slipping into a pair of loose slacks, one of his mothers ratty sweatshirts, and a pair of loafers that were about three sizes too big for him (hand-me-downs from his cousin). now came the hard part; tip-toeing across the floor in the worn leather soles of the loafers. jay was pretty much comatose, face-down in the pillows and sprawled out so he took up all available space. either way, sunghoon was quiet, and the ivy just saw him out, shutting the door as quietly as possible behind him. 

he flew down the staircase, inched around his tower, and slipped through the gap in the bricks he’d discovered on the second day of school. he still had no idea how he fit through; it was only about three bricks wide and four tall, but he wouldn’t question it too much. 

once he was on the other side, patting the dust off of his knees, the forest loomed over him, spindly branches of the trees silhouetted against the sky. 

there was a volatile cocktail of emotion when it came to the woods. on one hand, it was something new, forbidden for most students. on the other, it was absolutely, definitely, undoubtedly, malevolent. the first time he’d dared to enter, within the first few steps, he’d seen dozens of bright yellow eyes observing him from the trees. after a few more times, he’d grown used to them and they, him. they followed him through every now and then, a familiar rustle shadowing him through the greenwood. 

the most dangerous thing he’d ever encountered was an ill-tempered centaur, who had kicked at him and chased him for a few hundred meters. he considered himself lucky for never encountering anything like the acromantulas or hippogriffs yet. 

he kicked off his loafers and left them on the edge of the forest, then followed his usual routine. 

it was by no means a benign secret, it made him feel guilty for keeping it, but how could he let it go without fully understanding it himself? he’d tried conducting research, scouring the library for weeks for any hint of help, but any and all references to it were tucked securely in the restricted section. what did he even call it? metamorphmagus seemed too fancy a word for it. he preferred shifter, since it seemed less dramatic and a bit more… normal. well, as normal as it could seem. 

after a few seconds of focusing, he tossed his head and shook off the sweatshirt, nosing it into a pile next to his loafers. every time he switched form he felt like he’d been standing still for hours and he could finally stretch, so he did. he bounded along the tree line for a few minutes, making sure it was safe before trotting into the murky shadows from the pines. he tended to follow the winding paths other deer had already made, for convenience and safety. pricking his ears, he headed deeper into the holt, accompanied by the glowing yellow eyes and a raven flying overhead. 

he usually just stopped by a stream for a drink before heading to the small meadow clearing about a mile and a half in. tonight, however, the stream was vacant of the usual raccoons and foxes that usually visited with him. he uneasily stamped his hooves a bit, rustling the dead leaves under him. backing into the shrubbery behind him, he listened for anything out of the ordinary, glancing around. 

bracken parted on the other side of the stream and a massive, inky black figure emerged, crashing through the brambles and stomping to the stream. a hippogriff. sunghoon froze, hoping luck was in his favor and the beast would simply drink its fill and leave without smelling or hearing him. 

his shifted form was still a fawn, dappled black spots speckled along his back and legs; he was too young to die. he should’ve sensed something was wrong earlier. his breathing picked up as he panicked, and the hippogriff slowly raised its head, feathers ruffling. it was apparent that he’d been heard. 

the raven was still hovering above them, observing with beady pitch eyes. it cawed once, breaking the silence, and the hippogriff stood, stretching its wings and fixing sunghoon’s form in its gaze. 

he struggled to remember what he’d learned about them in care of magical creatures. he ducked his head, closing his eyes tightly, and listened to it stomp across the stream, taking great lungfuls of air to smell him. he waited until he could feel its breath on his hair before darting past it, bounding over the streambed and fleeing deeper into the forest. 

the crows first call had signalled to every other bird in the forest, setting off a cacophony of noise. the yellow eyes watched him pass by, trailing, observing the chase with morbid curiosity. he fell, tripping over briars in a panic. righting himself, his left leg and hip ached. he didn’t have the slightest idea of how far behind him the beast was, he didn’t want to assume he was safe yet. 

darting through a maze of dead trees that the hippogriff had to tear through, he risked a moment to look around, recognizing his surroundings. he was close to the academy’s drive, and if he could get to the drive in time, the enchanted boundary would shut the hippogriff out. 

limping towards the ditch on the side of the road, the hippogriff was a few dozen meters behind him when he managed to climb up onto the gravel, through the barrier. he turned and watched the beast skid to a stop before the road, snort, and turn, disappearing back into the forest. he stuck his tongue out at its retreating form before turning to the school. 

he set off hobbling down the side of the gravel street. faltering across the school grounds, he retrieved his clothes and loafers from the forest’s edge and shifted back. his entire left side stung once he was in normal form, already turning a nasty purplish blue that couldn’t be a good sign. it could’ve been worse, he supposed. it frankly would’ve been embarrassing if he’d _died_ out there. he gingerly crawled back through the gap in the bricks, staggered upstairs, and nearly forgot about jay until he opened the door and heard him still snoring. 

he lurched to his bed, too tired to take off his shoes or get under the duvet, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. 

//

he woke to the tea kettle whistling, like he always did. he’d spelled it to wake him up at exactly 4:52 am every morning to get ready for his first classes at 7. sitting up and ignoring the deep aching of his left side, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and shambled over to turn it off. 

realizing he’d slept in his clothes, rumpled from sleep, he hobbled over to the bathroom and tugged up the side of his sweater. deep purple bruising bloomed across his entire left side, from his hip-bone to his ribs. he experimentally poked it as gently as he could with a shaking hand before deciding it was best to leave it alone for now. as he walked out, tugging the hem of the sweater down, jay groaned from the futon and rolled over, revealing a hideous pair of thick-rimmed glasses. sunghoon wondered, wrinkling his nose, _well, i suppose it’s better than wearing them out._

“morning,” sunghoon greeted guardedly, still unused to having another person in his dorm. jay groaned again and shoved his pillow over his face. he remained virtually unconscious while sunghoon made and ate breakfast (making sure to leave the heel of a loaf of sourdough toast with apricot jam for jay), got dressed, went through his daily routine, and studied for half an hour. finding he couldn’t focus, he plucked dead leaves from the heartleaf philodendron next to his armchair. after all of that and jay still showed no signs of life, he decided to attempt to wake him.

“jay?” he nudged his roommate's shoulder with his foot from a safe distance. jay curled up and waved a hand in his direction.

“what time ‘s it,” he grunted, blearily managing to sit up. sunghoon fought off a smile at the indents that his glasses left on his face.

“it’s six twenty-five right now,” sunghoon informed, “classes start in thirty-five minutes.” 

“oh. gimme ten more minutes to sleep, then.” 

“just ten?! you’ll be late, though.” sunghoon tilted his head down at jay, scrunching up his nose. 

“no, i won’t. lemme sleep.” 

so sunghoon made another cup of tea, cleaned his nails, then covered them in glossy topcoat before rousing jay again. 

“up,” he ordered, nudging him again. jay sat up instantly, scaring the living daylights out of sunghoon, who jumped back and clenched his fists, smudging his almost-dry nail polish. “stars, you scared me.” he frowned, collecting his things for class while jay got up, got dressed, chugged his cup of tea (still green, since sunghoon wasn’t aware of a preference), shoved the toast into his mouth, and made himself look presentable for class. 

“what’s your first class?” he asked, emerging from the bathroom looking completely put together even though he’d woken up not ten minutes ago. sunghoon envied him for a moment before answering. 

“charms with professor yoon,” he answered a bit icily, adjusting his tie. he was in a bit of a foul mood after last night, and his side burned every time he stretched or _breathed_ , even. he’d have to stop by the infirmary to beg professor lee for something for the scratches. 

“which hall is that in?” 

“second floor, third wing, i think.” 

“cool, i can walk with you. mine’s astrology with professor boo, second floor, fourth wing. he has this TA that’s in love with him,” jay snickered, opening the door for sunghoon before ducking out of the way of the ivy. he went on about professor boo and the TA while they walked, providing decent background noise as they crossed the courtyard and filtered into the flow of students walking up the stairs. “--it’s kinda sad, cause professor boo, with all due respect, is a little… ditzy, y’know? by the way, is your leg okay?” 

“it’s alright.” sunghoon gritted his teeth. the stairs had proved to be more difficult than he’d expected.

“it kinda looks like it’s bothering you, though, you might wanna see professor lee about it after class.” jay suggested before splitting off down his hall, grinning and waving. sunghoon raised his hand back and offered a tiny smile. he patted down any wrinkles in his robe, straightened his tie again, and gingerly sat at his desk as soon as the bell rang. 

“good morning, students,” mr. choi, the TA, greeted from the back of the class, “it looks like professor yoon is going to be late _again_ , so let’s just wait until he gets here.” kim sunoo, the boy who sat to his left, turned to face him. 

“there’s so much tension between them, right? the professors?” he asked, sighing. 

“i’m pretty sure they just hate each other,” sunghoon murmured, watching the door for professor yoon. sunoo huffed and turned back to the front of the class, displeased with his answer. 

after about ten minutes of sitting in relative silence, with kim sunoo resolutely staring ahead and pointedly ignoring sunghoons presence, mr. choi got up and headed for the front of the class, obviously giving up on waiting for professor yoon to arrive. as soon as he opened his mouth to address the class, the professor bustled in, robes fluttering behind him and a massive sheaf of papers in his arms. 

“glad you finally decided to show up to your own class, professor,” mr. choi snapped. disregarding his TA’s obviously bad attitude completely, professor yoon grinned.

“thank you, you’re so kind. now, students! today we’re learning a new charm, which mr. choi will be polite enough to demonstrate.” mr. choi glowered, obviously not having agreed to this but either too scared or too far in to complain. 

“which one? is it fun?” a mousy first year across the room asked. professor yoon just showed the class his catty smile, answering the question. 

“of course it is! i would never teach you boring spells,” he sniffed at the very thought, “this one is extra fun. it’s called tarantallegra, everyone, say it with me, please!”

“tah-rant-allegra.” the class collectively pronounced. professor yoon clapped his hands together and tied up his hair as he always did before charming anything. 

“you’re going to swish your wand like so,” professor yoon made a slow figure-eight with the tip of his wand directly in front of mr. choi’s face, “then recite the charm.” sunghoon jotted that down in his notebook. 

“watch, everybody, i’m sure mr. choi won’t want to demonstrate this again, so make sure you’re paying attention!” he swished his wand and muttered the charm, and mr. choi broke into what appeared to be a rapid irish step dance, against his will. 

“excellent.” professor yoon looked pleased, leaving mr. choi to his own devices and turning to face the class again. sunghoon noted this as well. “i’ll provide various fruits and dolls for you to practice on, so pass them down your rows and get to it!” sunghoon fished his own wand, a 9 ¾ “ of ashwood with unicorn hair, out of his bag. 

by the time the practice materials had been distributed, mr. choi had slowed down to a foxtrot, looking miserable and glaring holes into the back of professor yoon’s head. sunghoon faced his practice dummy; a horrendous blonde cabbage patch doll, and swished his wand. 

“tarantallegra…?” he whispered, and the doll started flailing around. he flinched back and scooched down in his chair to watch it thrash, wide, owlish eyes peeking over the edge of his desk. 

“marvelous, park! that looks positively dreadful,” professor yoon praised, sending a thumbs up his way. he nodded and remained under his desk until the doll came to a full stop, all too aware of kim sunoo’s piercing gaze watching him. he’d received a clementine, which was weakly rolling around his desk. 

“how’d you get it so fast?” he asked, snappish. sunghoon just shrugged.

“kim? yours is looking... unenthusiastic,” professor yoon hopped up the steps to stand next to kim sunoo, “try thinking of something that makes you angry, then direct the energy towards your fruit.” 

“they took vanilla pudding off the school menu,” kim sunoo spat, “now there’s only tapioca or plain.” professor yoon looked confused for a moment before shrugging. 

“that’ll work. now, imagine the clementine is the one at fault for this.” kim sunoo huffed, narrowed his eyes, and recited the spell. the clementine shook more before starting to bounce against the desk. 

“excellent! perfect, splendid, absolutely wonderful. you’ve got it, now!” professor yoon patted kim sunoo on the back before hurrying off to assist a third year whose doll was trying to attack their deskmate. 

“i loved the vanilla pudding,” sunoo hissed, ducking next to sunghoon to watch his clementine throw a fit. 

“i prefer the tapioca,” sunghoon admitted. kim sunoo squinted at him. 

“you are so _weird _. only old ladies like tapioca pudding.” they sat in relative silence for a few more moments before deeming it safe to come back up into their chairs.__

__“the most important thing you should’ve learned is to never use this on someone else unless you have to.” mr. choi finally stopped dancing altogether, scowling at professor yoon._ _

__“yes, yes, of course,” professor yoon waved a dismissive hand, “that’s a given. now it’s time for the boring part, so mr. choi will take you through your guided notes.” he disappeared up the steps and into his office while mr. choi gaped at his audacity._ _

__“fine. alright, everyone, get your notes out.” sunghoon sighed and resigned himself to taking notes under the watchful gaze of the cabbage patch doll._ _

__“y’know, he just drinks muggle wine in there,” kim sunoo tipped his head in the direction of professor yoons office door at the front of the class, “has a whole rack full of it in his ‘supply closet’. i don’t blame him: if i was as batty as he was, i’d drink it too.”_ _

__sunghoon had a feeling it was going to be a long day._ _


	2. two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh thank u so much 4 all the nice comments u left on ch. 1 ^__^ they rlly helped motivate me 2 write n edit n post this chapter !

“sunghoon, you’re never going to believe this,” kim sunoo nearly flew up the class steps and threw himself into his desk seat, “professor yoon and mr. choi are together. as in, together-together.” 

“really?” he hummed, thinly veiled disinterest lining his voice. 

“i went up to ask professor yoon about a problem, and then i overheard them talking about dinner, and then they said _the l-word_ ,” he hissed under his breath, “plus, that means i was right, and you were wrong.” he adjusted his plaid green tie and stuck his nose up, quite pleased with himself for his sleuthing.

sunghoon sulked at his desk. he hated being wrong, and he hated it even more when it was pointed out and rubbed in his face in this exact fashion. he comforted himself in the fact that he’d gotten the tarantallegra charm to work faster than kim sunoo had. 

“alright, everyone, you’re free to go for the day,” professor yoon announced, perched at the edge of his desk, thin legs crossed at the knee. his students got up and rushed towards the door, with the exception of sunghoon and kim sunoo, who were still packing their bags. 

“no, you’re not, wait for the bell.” mr. choi disagreed, poking his head out of the office. the mass of students reluctantly sat back down.

“yes you are, because i said so. now run along.” professor yoon waved, and mr. choi visibly gave up, disappearing back in the class office. “have a nice day, everyone! i’ll see you all tomorrow.” sunghoon gathered the sheaf of paper on his desk, tucked it under his arm, and pointedly ignored sunoo on his way out. 

“hey!” someone clapped him in between the shoulderblades, making him stumble forward a few steps. he whirled around to see who the culprit was, but just faced jay. it was apparent that he’d been waiting for him. “sorry if i startled you.” 

“why are you here?” sunghoon asked, suspicious, although he wasn’t sure what of. 

“i got out early, so i came to wait for you, cause i’m nice. also, i’m making sure you go to the infirmary for your leg.” he heartily, painfully, patted him on the back again.

“oh… thank- thank you?” sunghoon warily agreed, “but won’t this make you late for your next period?

“i have professor minatozaki for divination next, i don’t think she’ll care,” he shrugged, heading down the hall to the infirmary before sunghoon, “now come on.” 

//

professor lee frightened most students, even though he was about 20 centimeters shorter than the collective student body. now was one of those times, while he mixed herbs in a pestle and mortar a bit more aggressively than usual, cinnamon powder drifting up in great clouds to settle on all surfaces within reach. sunghoon, after recurrent visits in his first year for colds, fevers, and results of his chronic clumsiness, was accustomed to it, yet it still tickled his nose.

“what is it now?” professor lee asked, glancing up to observe the newcomers. a small swarm of ravenclaw first years with runny noses huddled in the corner, eyes watery and shining in the low light because of the cinnamon powder. jay painfully elbowed him in the side once again, signaling him to answer the question. 

“oh… uhm. i’m in for--” he paused, raised a hand, and quietly sneezed, “sorry, i’m in for the bruising cream again?” he said uncertainly, hunching his shoulders in. professor lee had nearly run out of patience with him earlier in the year for his frequent visits for this particular remedy.

“merlin, what have you been getting yourself into, park? i’m almost out of it, ‘cause of you.” professor lee huffed, pointing to the locked cabinet behind him. “get it yourself, you know the combination already.” sunghoon shuffled over crouching behind professor lee to access the muggle-made combination lock.

“thank you,” he briefly bowed, and professor lee smacked him on the top of the head with a powdery hand. 

“yeah, yeah, i’ll see you tomorrow. quit getting hurt so often. i don’t wanna see your ugly mug every week, park.” 

“i’ll try,” sunghoon promised, although he knew he’d end up back here in a few days. jay trailed him on the way out, sneezes resonating throughout the hospital portion of the infirmary. “you sneeze like an elephant,” sunghoon hissed, “can you keep it down, please?” jay just raised a shoulder in response, not even a full shrug, before sneezing again. 

“anyway, i take it you come here often?” jay assumed, having to jog to keep up. sunghoon nodded minutely and ran a hand through his hair, trying to get the powder out of it from when professor lee smacked him. “so what did you do?” 

“fell,” sunghoon answered quickly. he wasn’t lying to jay, he just wasn’t telling the whole truth, he assured himself. he tucked the bruising cream into the pocket of his robe, still holding onto it. 

“...alright. i guess i’ll see you after classes, then. hope it feels better soon!” obviously sensing his discomfort, jay split off at the head of the vestibule, waving again. 

sunghoon just nodded, lingering in the common area for a bit before heading upstairs for history of magic. how should he enter? he was-- he glanced at his watch-- six minutes and ten seconds late already. he shuffled inside, robes nearly tripping him up, and gingerly slid into his seat, avoiding eye contact with professor kwon.

the professor said nothing, just watched him through slitted eyes for a few seconds before continuing his lecture. today, rather than wearing his usual robes of gryffindor, he was in some type of quirky tiger-print monstrosity of a shirt with slacks and flip-flops on. 

“hey,” a hufflepuff next to him elbowed him in the side-- seriously, what was it with people and elbowing? a tap on the shoulder would be better, and not even touching him would be preferable, as they’d already gotten his attention by speaking to him-- and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “do you need the notes so far?” 

sunghoon nodded, forgetting the mini-grudge that had already begun to form against the hufflepuff. the boy slid his notes across the desk so that he could see. 

“thank you,” he breathed, making an honest attempt to copy the hufflepuff’s nearly illegible handwriting onto his own parchment. 

“i’m not sure if you’re aware… you’ve got pepper in your hair,” he added, snickering a bit. sunghoon shook his head to remove it, then consequently sneezed about a dozen times. professor kwon paused, shooting him a questioning gaze before continuing to explain house formations.

“anyway, as i was saying, salazar dipped pretty early on. desperate not to be forgotten, he left a huge statue of himself in his chamber of secrets. like, how self-centered can you be? anyway, the statue still stands today and it’s as creepy as ever, let me tell you.” professor kwon fell back into his armchair. “questions, anyone?” 

“you’ve seen it? the statue?” an eager third year behind sunghoon asked, leaning over her desk. “how tall is it?” 

“yes, i’ve seen it, and it’s ginormous. big and shadowy and instilling in you a general sense of doom.” professor kwon spun his wand around his fingers. the third year fell back into her seat, whispering to her clutch of friends. “did all of you get that? great,” professor kwon clapped his hands, “because it’s art time.” 

art time consisted mostly of professor kwon drawing multiple variations of tigers and talking about his own time at hogwarts as a student. the walls were plastered with student work, ranging from messy first-year doodles of griffins and unicorns to the fourth-years landscape watercolors and professor kwon’s own mod-podged tiger collages. sunghoon pitied the teacher who’d have this classroom after professor kwon. 

the hufflepuff elbowed him again, “are you done copying the notes?” sunghoon winced and nodded, sliding the parchment back over before tenderly clutching his side. he desperately wanted to go home, but professor kwon considered the artwork produced in art time an exit ticket. if you didn’t draw anything and ‘get your creative energy flowing’, you couldn’t leave class. he scribbled out a rough sketch of a willow tree, throwing in a cloud and scribbled v-shapes as birds for extra detail, and pretty much threw it into the designated basket. it looked as though a toddler had drawn it.

“ah, ah, ah, not so fast. has it got your name on it, park?” professor kwon asked, removing it and handing it back, top left corner delicately pinched between two fingers. sunghoon scrunched up his face, jotted his name and year on it, and tossed it back in. he glanced at professor kwon’s own work: another tiger, he noted. “try and quit moping, alright? kinda… messing up the class chakras today.” 

“mm.” he hummed, not necessarily in agreement, and limped back to his seat. he was tired and grumpy and definitely about to get a killer migraine, and professor kwon was concerned about the _class chakras _. he pouted and slumped further into his chair while the hufflepuff next to him bounced up and down on his yoga ball, not unlike kim sunoo’s clementine in charms class earlier. professor kwon had presented the option earlier in the school year of using a ‘yoga ball’ rather than a normal desk chair, but sunghoon had very quickly turned down the first option after witnessing most of the class falling off and generally making fools of themselves as soon as they tried to sit. professor kwon had both a chair and a yoga ball, as well as a preposterous upholstered leopard print armchair in the corner.__

__“park, are you done with art time already? you’ve only drawn one thing?” professor kwon asked, trying to sound encouraging, “maybe draw something else?” he suggested. sunghoon reluctantly grabbed another piece of paper and angrily drew smiley faces all over it. the hufflepuff next to him nervously eyed his paper for a moment before looking away again. he finally finished, wrote his name and year in the very middle in huge handwriting, and shuffled to the front to turn it in._ _

__“so uh… wanna talk about it?” the hufflepuff asked, cautious. he was nervously rolling back and forth on his yoga ball._ _

__“not really; thanks.” sunghoon huffed, flopping back into his chair. “i’m sunghoon, by the way,” he introduced himself, feeling it was necessary if the hufflepuff was going to insist on talking at him._ _

__“i know, i’ve sat next to you all year.” the hufflepuff rolled his eyes, then fixed sunghoon with an incredulous look. “wait, do you not know my name?” sunghoon panicked. was he supposed to know his name? they’d hardly spoken before except for a few occasions when he had to borrow a quill or know the page number they were on in the texts._ _

__“...no?” he admitted. the hufflepuff just sighed._ _

__“i’m yang jungwon, nice to meet you,” he grabbed sunghoon’s clammy hand from the desk and shook it vigorously while sunghoon went completely stiff, slightly uncomfortable._ _

__“you’re not a people person, i guess.” yang jungwon concluded, eyebrows scrunching together in thought._ _

__“not really.” sunghoon slowly retracted his hand from yang jungwon’s surprisingly firm grip._ _

__“i see. you play quidditch? any extracurriculars?”_ _

__“not really.”_ _

__“do you like professor kwon?”_ _

__“not really.” sunghoon brought his heels onto his seat, resting his chin on his knees and tucking his hands into the sleeves of his robe, pinching the green silk lining. yang jungwon groaned, throwing his hands up in defeat._ _

__“you’re impossible, park. i’m trying to start a conversation over here,” he said, then muttered, “slytherins.”_ _

__“oh. i’m sorry…?”_ _

__“it’s fine,” yang jungwon sighed, “what are you interested in? any hobbies other than brooding?”_ _

__“i don’t _brood_ ,” sunghoon protested again, “and yes, i have hobbies. i like plants, i suppose, i’m in herbology for it.” he sniffled, feeling his headache coming on. maybe he’d end up visiting professor lee twice today. _ _

__“neat. who’s your professor?”_ _

__“kang. professor hyunggu, not professor seulgi,” he clarified. yang jungwon nodded._ _

__“i have hyunggu for ancient art, i think.” he frowned at sunghoon’s surprised expression. “what?”_ _

__“you can’t just call them by their first names, that’s rude.” sunghoon whispered, glancing at professor kwon in case he’d heard._ _

__“it’s fine. you’re so old fashioned,” yang jungwon laughed._ _

__“oh. sorry.”_ _

__“don’t worry about it. class is almost over, so i’ll see you tomorrow, sunghoon.” yang jungwon waved again, over his shoulder, as he headed for the door where other students were lined up for dismissal. sunghoon pouted again. he wasn’t old fashioned, he was just polite. besides, yang jungwon and he were nowhere near first-name basis, they’d met like, what, five minutes ago?_ _

__he tucked his things into his bag again and painfully stood, poorly concealing his limp on the way out of class._ _

__“park? everything alright?” professor kwon asked, raising his eyebrows. he nodded and backed out of the classroom, hiding from further inquisitions in the flow of students headed downstairs. finally, herbology was next. his easiest class, plus professor kang was always absent, off in the classroom across from his, visiting professor yang. there was a long-running bet as to how many minutes professor kang would be missing every class, and sunghoon had accumulated enough knuts from the bets to buy a new pair of loafers to replace his cousin’s hand-me-down pair that he’d worn the night before._ _

__carefully making his way down the muddy path to the greenhouse buildings, he held his robe up to keep it dry. his least favorite feeling in the world was the damp interior layer of silk clinging to his ankles all day._ _

__“sunghoon!” jake shouted, making him jump and drop his bag. “sorry about that.” jake bumped shoulders with him and plucked his bag from the dewy grass on the wayside of the path. “so, how’s your day been?”_ _

__“pretty okay, i suppose. i made a friend, like you told me to,” he huffed, “some hufflepuff who sits next to me in history of magic named yang jungwon.”_ _

__“that’s great news! how’s your roommate? is he as scary as you thought?” jake opened the door to the greenhouse for them, the humidity chasing away the chill from their walk._ _

__“not really,” sunghoon grudgingly admitted, ducking under a few vines, “he got rid of the spider in the stairwell for me. the ivy kinda likes him, too; let him in on the first try, didn’t even wrap him up or chase him or _anything_.”_ _

__“oh, don’t sound so disappointed. see, i told you it wouldn’t be that bad,” jake smiled, “i was right, wasn’t i?” sunghoon said nothing, which was answer enough. they took their seats at the front of the class, sitting across the gardening box from each other._ _

__“how long are you betting today for the professor?” a ravenclaw leaned over into sunghoon’s personal space. “i say ten minutes.”_ _

__“oh, uhm. nothing, today.” he managed, slowly inching in the opposite direction._ _

__“kai, can you please back up a little?” jake asked, chuckling._ _

__“oh, yeah, sorry. i didn’t realize.” kai smiled apologetically and returned to his seat. sunghoon sat stiffly for a few more moments, listening to the chatter of the class._ _

__“hi! so sorry i’m late again.” professor kang swept in through the door, black and yellow robes brushing the ground. the ravenclaws in the back corner who had made bets groaned. obviously the professor had arrived sooner than they’d anticipated. they shoved the pile of coins to a tiny, smug-looking second-year. “today, i’ll be honest, i forgot to plan anything for class, so we’ll be planting in the garden. i’m providing aprons and you may take off your robes; we don’t want them to get all muddy.”_ _

__the class collectively groaned, unzipping their robes and being left in the thin school uniforms; a crisp white sweater and wide black slacks. sunghoon had mistakenly received a pair too big for him, so today he’d used twine to hold them up around his waist so that they didn’t brush the ground._ _

__“i hate garden-work,” jake rolled up his sleeves and put his glasses on, “always muddy and cold.”_ _

__“cheer up, please,” professor kang pouted, “at least it’s not raining anymore.” at this, the tell-tale patter of raindrops on the covered greenhouse started. the professors pout deepened. “okay, at least it’s not storming. now, everyone out! get your aprons on correctly, please.”_ _

__sunghoon and jake selected a corner far away from the rest of the grumbling students, closer to the cliff than the greenhouse. rain had fogged up jakes glasses within the first thirty seconds, so he hung them from the collar of his sweater where they bounced against his chest every time he had to dig a hole for planting._ _

__“what is it we’re even planting? _what is this?_ ” jake asked, holding a small, shrieking root upside down. it thrashed around in his grip, tiny, ugly little face screwed up. _ _

__“i forgot. please, shut it up, though, it’s hurting my ears.” sunghoon pointed to the hole he’d just dug and jake tossed the thing in, quickly covering it in damp soil, poorly muffling its screams. he somewhat felt as though he were covering up a murder._ _

__“all we’ve got left are… basil seeds. we went from that monstrosity to _basil seeds?_ ” jake asked, peering at the label of a seed packet. _ _

__“fifteen more minutes! i’m making hot cocoa inside, first ones done get first dibs!” professor hyunggu called, sparking madness amongst the students._ _

__“this is madness.” jake wailed, just tossing hundreds of basil seeds onto the dirt._ _

__sunghoon just went back to sulking, as he’d gotten the knees of his slacks muddy and the rain had made his sweater smell like a wet dog._ _

__“i hate this class.” a ravenclaw muttered as they passed, and sunghoon couldn’t agree more._ _

__//_ _

__professor kang called everyone inside after about half an hour more, small paper cups of watery hot chocolate distributed to everyone’s seat at the garden boxes. jake chugged his in one go as soon as they were inside, scalding his tongue and throat. sunghoon sipped his own, just slightly burning his lower lip in the process._ _

__“well, i hope everyone had fun,” professor kang was met with boos, mostly from the gaggle of ravenclaws huddling for warmth in the back corner by the ferns, “and learned something, maybe?” more boos from a few gryffindors by the door, already in their damp robes again. jake tossed a bundle of hand warmers to sunghoon, who barely managed to catch them before holding them up to his face, smushing his rosy, wind-chilled cheeks together for some semblance of warmth._ _

__“i theel like ‘m dyin’.” he managed, miserably curling up into a ball at his seat, protecting his side. jake draped his still-dry jacket over his shoulders, standing back and shivering on his own. sunghoon shook his head, hardly discernible from the rest of his shaking, and shrugged the coat off. “‘s yours. not takin’ it.” jake grunted in acknowledgement and sat next to him, tucking it around both of their shoulders._ _

__sunghoon’s knees, now caked in slowly drying mud, were in jake’s face, and jake’s sweater smelled of the labrador he had back home, but at least they were warmer than the lonely students clinging to their steaming hot cocoa cups for heat. after a few minutes, the heat from the handwarmers began to sting, so he tossed them to a pathetic-looking gryffindor across the aisle._ _

__“it’s nearly dismissal time, everybody, and i’ve got a rowdy class of first-years, so i advise you to clear out early,” professor kang projected across the greenhouse. the door opened with a wave of his wand, and students flinched back from the rush of cold air. “out!” professor kang urged. jake untangled himself, lifting sunghoons legs to get out from under them, and sunghoon slowly unfolded himself from the little ball he’d been in. jake shambled off to the back of the class to retrieve their robes from the designated hooks, but on his way back, the tube of bruising cream from the infirmary fell out of the pocket._ _

__jake picked it up, immediately recognizing it without having to read the label._ _

__“what did you do now?” he asked, only a little bit disappointed this time. sunghoon shrugged. it seemed to be answer enough for jake, who just handed it over along with his robe. “can you please hold these for me? i need to go ask professor kang for extra credit.” he extended his arms, piled with an extra sweater, a binder, his glasses, and the nerdy case he always kept his wand in. (ash wood with a dragon heartstring core, 10 ¼”, slightly yielding flexibility, if sunghoon remembered correctly). sunghoon took the entire pile, delicately picking the glasses off, fearing he might drop them._ _

__he balanced them on the tip of his nose and waited, shivering, while jake pleaded with professor kang. the first-years started to run in, rain dripping from their soaked robes and breath coming out in billowing clouds of vapor, but still laughing and screaming, grating at sunghoon’s ears._ _

__“sorry that took so long.” jake took the pile of his things back, either not noticing his missing glasses or not caring that sunghoon had taken them. “do you want to eat lunch inside today? it’s only predicted to rain more, y’know.”_ _

__“that sounds nice.” sunghoon’s teeth chattered as they stood in the doorway, staring out into the rain. jake went first, stepping straight into it, clutching his materials to his chest and jogging down the walkway. sunghoon grimaced and hurried after him, nearly slipping on the rain-slick cobblestones every few steps but barely managing to catch himself every time. his side burned by the time they’d reached the shelter of the school’s entry._ _

__“come on, i wanna get to the sandwiches before they’re all gone,” jake waved sunghoon along, again forcing him to run to keep up, “can you save us seats?” sunghoon reluctantly agreed and trudged up the stairs to the covered terrace, selecting the least soaked table and courteously wiping jake’s seat off with the corner of his robe. he had honestly forgotten to pack himself a lunch today, but found that he didn’t have much of an appetite._ _

__jake arrived soon enough, interrupting his brief train of thought by shoving a dish of pudding in front of him._ _

__“i noticed you forgot your lunch. _again._ ” he pointed out. _ _

__“oh, thank you.” sunghoon picked at the pudding, hardly eating any of it, really, just pushing it around. he sniffled a bit, regretfully wiping his nose with his sleeve._ _

__“are you feeling okay?” jake asked around a massive bite of his sandwich. sunghoon hummed._ _

__“i guess not; i think i’m getting sick again. like, sick-sick,” he said, though a displeased pout. jake shook his head in disapproval._ _

__“i’m giving you a humidifier for your birthday. and handwarmers, and like, ibuprofen or something.” he frowned._ _

__“what’s ibu--”_ _

__“ibuprofen. it’s like…” jake waved his hands around, gathering his thoughts, “a painkiller? it helps when you get headaches and stuff.”_ _

__“i get headaches like everyday. from you,” sunghoon joked, leaning out of range of any consequential slaps from jake, “i’m kidding, merlin!”_ _

__“you’d better be. i’m like, genuinely the best person in the world,” jake sniffed, “now hurry and finish your pudding so you can go home.”_ _

__///_ _

__sunghoon trudged back through the courtyard, sniffling and picking his way around muddy flats. the downpour had finally ceased while he’d had his pudding, leaving droplets glistening in the trees and his hair wavy from the humidity. the ivy greeted him, lazily waving a tendril his way before opening the door for him._ _

__“oh, you’re back.” jay popped his head up from over a pot of wilting daisies, startling sunghoon, “i’m watering the plants for you.”_ _

__he observed jay moving around the dorm for a few seconds before taking his robe off and shaking out his hair for the final time. he wiped his nose with the hem of his robe before realizing it and taking it off._ _

__the pain in his side had thankfully decreased to a dull ache throughout the day, but it couldn’t hurt to apply the bruising cream. he pocketed the ointment and slipped into the bathroom. it felt cold on the bruise, but he rubbed it in anyway before changing sweaters. really, his entire wardrobe consisted of sweaters, most of them identical. he decided to switch things up a little, putting on a pale green oversize cardigan that used to belong to his mother. it was daisy print, with what felt like the itchiest interior the manufacturers could come up with._ _

__he shuffled back out, sniffling, in a cloud of the sweet smell of the bruising cream (he was grateful to professor lee, as the first time he’d visited for the cream it smelled like burnt hair. he’d nervously pointed this out to the professor, and the next time sunghoon visited, it had a much more pleasant scent of marshmallows)._ _

__“would you like some tea?” he asked quietly, scratching his bare shoulder where the hem of the cardigan itched._ _

__“sure,” jay reemerged from the plants and nodded._ _

__“do you have a preference?” sunghoon tilted his head, staring at the cabinet full of tins of tea leaves, “green tea, black tea, white tea…?”_ _

__“not really,” jay shrugged, returning the watering can to its designated spot above the sink. “i guess anything sweet?”_ _

__sunghoon crouched, going over all of the options and settling on cinnamon chai for jay and the luxury english breakfast for himself. hopping onto the counter to sit, he apprehensively watched jay go about the dorm, dusting, until the water was ready._ _

__“i’ve got arithmancy next, and then defense against the dark arts, so i’ll probably be here late. if the ivy doesn’t let you in, please go down to professor kim’s office across the courtyard and tell her i sent you.” sunghoon hurriedly instructed. the cardigan itched his wrists. he poured his tea into his thermos and a teacup for jay._ _

__“this is pretty good,” jay sipped it, burning his tongue but still drinking it nonetheless._ _

__“glad you like it,” sunghoon hummed, tucked his wand behind his ear like professor kim (really, he needed to stop hanging out with her), and grabbed an umbrella from the stand before departing._ _

__jake, as usual, was waiting for him across the courtyard for arithmancy together._ _

__“i figured out what kind of tea he likes,” he announced, “chai, and i added two cubes of sugar.” he sipped his own and made a face, finding it unpleasantly bitter. “i forgot to add any to my own, though.”_ _

__“nice. i hope you did the homework, because i definitely didn’t.”_ _

__“i didn’t either. well, professor jeon likes us anyway.” he raised his right shoulder in a shrug, jostling his bag._ _

__on their way to their classroom, he bumped into yang jungwon from history of magic._ _

__“ah, sunghoon! here,” he shoved a crumpled piece of parchment at sunghoon’s chest, “you’re invited to the party in the common room! the instructions for how to sneak in are on the back, by the way.” he waved and disappeared again._ _

__“so?” jake cocked an eyebrow, “it would seem you really did make a friend.” sunghoon, somewhat offended at jake’s disbelief, nodded._ _

__“i can’t believe you doubted me,” he pouted and leaned down a bit to rest his chin on jake’s shoulder._ _

__“i can’t believe you got invited and i didn’t.” jake frowned, shaking sunghoon off._ _

__“you can go instead of me, then.” sunghoon offered the parchment to jake and continued walking down the hall, trying to escape before jake could refuse._ _

__“you’re not getting out of this by pretending to be nice to me. you’re going to that party whether you like it or not.”_ _

__“i’m not _pretending_ to be nice. besides, i have things to do.” _ _

__“you’re going.”_ _

__“fine,” sunghoon huffed, taking the invitation back and shoving it into the pocket of his robe. he’d end up going to that dumb party and probably-- he shivered at the thought-- make new friends._ _

__the rest of the day passed in a hazy blur, with sunghoon feeling progressively worse as classes passed. by the end of his sixth class, he was flushed and shaking like a leaf in his robe._ _

__“we’re going to the infirmary again,” jake ordered, “and then i’m taking you back to your dorm. you can skip your seventh class.” sunghoon just managed a nod before being swept away. before he knew it, they were in line at the infirmary. he hadn’t even remembered how they got there._ _

__“you again.” professor lee looked down his nose at sunghoon._ _

__“mhm.” he hummed in response. professor lee looked concerned for a split second before returning to his usual facial expression of displeasure._ _

__“what is it now?” professor lee asked. sunghoon blankly stared back. he wanted to go home._ _

__“he’s got a fever,” jake informed when it was made clear sunghoon wouldn’t answer, “i think he just needs some ginger.”_ _

__“...alright. when did the symptoms start?”_ _

__“botany,” sunghoon mumbled, “it was rainy.”_ _

__“they made you go outside?”_ _

__“the whole class period,” jake piped up. professor lee snorted and turned to face the shelves of herbs and ointments in the office._ _

__“i sympathize, but this is going to taste absolutely foul,” the professor apologized in advance, reaching up on his tiptoes to select a bottle of garlic cloves from the top shelf. jake kept a comforting hand on sunghoons shoulder as they watched the professor mash up ginger and garlic in his mortar and pestle._ _

__“does this mean i don’t have to go to the party?” sunghoon asked, tilting his head up to ask jake, who just chuckled and shook his head._ _

__“you have to stay up in your dorm for the night, and maybe tomorrow, i think.”_ _

__“ah, park.” professor lee reemerged. “you came in for bruising cream earlier today, didn’t you? i’d like to take a look.” sunghoon froze._ _

__“ah, no, that’s ok. it’s fine.” professor lee narrowed his eyes._ _

__“show me.” he snapped, and sunghoon was never good at ignoring orders. he turned away from jake to avoid a thorough scolding and quickly took off his school robe to show the professor the bruise._ _

__“merlin, kid, what did you get yourself _into_?” he recoiled and wrinkled his nose. _ _

__“what is it?” jake tried to peer over his shoulder and catch a glimpse but sunghoon pulled his cardigan back over it just in time._ _

__“nothing,” sunghoon sniffled. professor lee disappeared back into his office, muttering under his breath, and reappeared with his pestle and a bundle of flowers._ _

__“arnica, for the bruise, and a mix of ginger and garlic for the fever. if you start hallucinating send someone down for ginkgo.” professor lee shoved the pestle in sunghoon’s face and offered a spoon. “eat up.”_ _

__sunghoon managed one bite before gagging at the taste. professor lee prodded him on, quite literally,with his foot, until the pestle was empty._ _

__“that was--” he shuddered, “ugh.”_ _

__“good! it’ll discourage you from getting sick again.” professor lee tossed the granite pestle back into his office and ignored the resulting crash. “now get going. i have other patients.”_ _

__“thank you,” jake led sunghoon out with an arm around his shoulders and accidentally jostled his side in the process. “so, you’re going home and _staying_ home, and under no circumstances are you going to that party.”_ _

__“i never wanted to, anyway.” sunghoon muttered._ _

__/////_ _

__somehow he went to the party. it wasn’t entirely his fault, though, jay had asked him and he wasn’t all that great at saying no, especially not to his new roommate. he was mostly afraid of making jay mad that he wouldn’t go._ _

__so now here he was, huddled in the corner next to an equally unhyped ravenclaw second-year._ _

__“you got invited by jungwon?” the other boy yelled over the music. sunghoon had never heard bach being played this loud. he nodded, uneasily sipping his lemonade and eyeing the room._ _

__“i’m ni-ki, by the way, nice to meet you.”_ _

__“sunghoon, nice to meet you too,” he said, as loudly as he dared. jay bumped into his left shoulder and offered him an hors d'oeuvre; some sort of cracker with an unidentifiable jam on it. he shook his head and subtly hunched his shoulders to protect his bruised side from any more assaults, accidental or not. it was aching and the little gashes in it stung every time he moved. plus, his head still hurt and his nose was stinging from how many tissues he’d used._ _

__“you look like you wanna go home,” jay shouted, tilting his head. sunghoon hesitated for a moment before shrugging._ _

__“this isn’t really my kind of thing.” understatement of the year._ _

__“i figured. c’mon,” jay hooked sunghoon's arm and dragged him through the crowd to the door where they’d come in. he poked his head out, checking if the coast was clear (as they weren’t supposed to be in the hufflepuff common room at all, especially not for a party). as soon as he opened the door enough to slip out, though, professor kim was there, with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. jay froze and tried to hide behind sunghoon._ _

__“park? you went to a _party_?” professor kim sounded incredulous. _ _

__“please don’t tell.” he whined, eyes wide and pleading. professor kim sighed and stood aside for them to pass._ _

__“shoo,” she said, waving sunghoon along, “i have to break it up in there.”_ _

__jay, although looking confused as to how they weren’t being suspended, added, “we were never here,” before darting down the hallway and dragging sunghoon along with him by the wrist. professor kim started to call after them but cut herself off. jay tugged him along at a brisk pace until the doors. he obviously realized he hadn’t released sunghoon’s wrist yet, as he let go and dropped it as though it burned him. sunghoon sniffled a little more and wiped his nose with the inside of his sweater._ _

__“are you sick?” jay asked, looking accusatory. sunghoon frantically shook his head._ _

__“no. i’m fine, just cold,” he lied, willing his nose to stop running._ _

__“you should’ve worn something over your sweater, then.” jay reprimanded, opening the doors and not bothering to hold them for sunghoon, who nearly ran face-first into them. he grudgingly agreed, although didn’t speak until they were back at the tower._ _

__“tea?” jay asked, after a few awkward moments spent standing in the doorway. sunghoon, slightly taken aback that jay had asked, just nodded and disappeared behind his wall of plants to get something warmer on. glancing outside again, his gaze stopped on the same inky figure as before. this time it was perched on the roof of the ravenclaw dorm tower, and although it had no visible face, he could feel it was staring at him. watching. he blinked once and it was gone._ _

__maybe it was worse than he’d thought._ _

__//////////// oki doki chapter 5 !! i think !!_ _

__he stayed in his dorm for as long as he dared, still sick but refusing to visit professor lee for more medicine. he exhausted his green tea supply fairly quickly and resorted to sipping black tea with copious amounts of honey as sweetener, until jay found out and began to bring him handfuls of sugar packets from the great hall._ _

__he’d closed the curtains to the windows around his bed so that he couldn’t see the figure. one curtain in the kitchenette was left open for the sole purpose of keeping the plants alive. most of his time was spent curled up in bed, napping, or staring into space. the pain in his side had been reduced to a soreness whenever he moved, thanks to the constant application of the arnica flower. if jay ever saw the bruise, (he probably had, at this point) he never asked about it, for which sunghoon was grateful. jake hadn’t asked about anything either: it was suspiciously calm._ _

__the perk of having few friends was that he had fewer people to lie to._ _

__it came to a head on a sunday, of all days, when jake visited for the first time. he’d been nagging sunghoon to let him come over, and hadn’t taken no for an answer this time, banging on the door for three minutes straight until sunghoon wandered over and opened it. he wondered why the ivy hadn’t stopped him. jake invited himself in and sat on the armchair in the corner, leaving sunghoon to stand awkwardly in the corner, feeling out of place. although it was his dorm he felt like he was jake’s guest._ _

__“i brought you notes from arithmancy, and some more green tea. jay told me you ran out two days ago.” jake swung his bag off of his shoulder and emptied it onto the side table: bound parchment and a variety of green tea bags fell out._ _

__“thank you.” jake hummed in acknowledgement._ _

__“do you wanna come with me and heeseung to the general store for coffee?” jake asked, tilting his head up at sunghoon._ _

__“...sure. lemme go get changed, first.” sunghoon shuffled off into his room and unbuttoned his cardigan, shivering as the open window let in cold air, prickling his bare skin. he absent-mindedly poked his bruise. it seemed to have shrunk a bit, only running from his hipbone to his bottom ribs, covering the area in a deep purple._ _

__“hey, d’you want tea? cause--” jake poked his head around the corner and immediately zeroed in on sunghoon’s side. “what did you do?” he snapped. sunghoon tightened his arms around his ribs in a protective hug of sorts while jake approached._ _

__“it’s nothing, really, i just fell down the stairs.” sunghoon turned away to try hiding the bruise, but jake pulled his hand away with ease and inspected it._ _

__“these look like-- hoon, these look like _claw marks_.” jake accidentally jabbed it with his fingernail and sunghoon jolted away._ _

__“they’re not,” he answered, too quickly. he grabbed one of his dad’s old jumpers and shoved it over his head to avoid further inspection, wincing as he raised his arms and the motion pulled at the gashes. at least they were starting to scab over._ _

__“yes they are. what did you do? was it in care and keeping of magical creatures?”_ _

__“they’re not claw marks, jake. let’s just go.” sunghoon mumbled, pushing past into the main area. jake, obviously not convinced, followed._ _

__“if it was in class, you have to tell someone, hoon... i know you don’t like complaining, but it looked really serious and i’m worried,” jake said, trotting after sunghoon as he stomped over into the kitchenette for his tea._ _

__“i have it handled,” sunghoon sighed, knowing that he _most definitely, absolutely, in no way_ had anything close to handled. well, jake didn’t need to know. the less he knew the better._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to ask questions or just leave a little note in the comments ! i rlly appreciate em n they help me write :D


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry this took so long . . . i ran out of motivation n only managed to get this much out D: i've been having a rlly difficult time w school n family n stuff so i guess that's my excuse for being so late w this :P
> 
> either way i hope u enjoy it! it's a bit shorter than my other chapters but it's a rlly homey chapter n they get closer :D

they sat next to the window of the cafe, no matter how sunghoon tried to tug jake into the back, out of view of the trees. 

jake dragged him down into the booth with him to sit, letting sunghoon clutch the end of his sleeve. 

“you seem… paranoid.” the ravenclaw jake had brought tilted his head. “is everything okay?” 

“yeah.” sunghoon’s hands shook under the table. the ravenclaw fixed him with a scrutinizing look. 

“...okay.” jake at least had the courtesy to order for sunghoon.

the rest of lunch was spent listening to jake and heeseung, the ravenclaw, quietly conversing about school while watching the forest, eyes darting along the treeline. he didn’t relax until they were on their way back to the tower. jake had ordered him a mocha while he was distracted at the cafe, so he was licking at the cream on top as they went. 

“what is that?” jake stopped walking and pushed him back so he was shielded. sunghoon lowered the cup from his mouth and followed jake’s gaze up to the top of his tower, where the pitch figure was hanging on, looking down at them. sunghoon froze, staring up at it with wide eyes and a gaping mouth, a bit of cream still on his lip. he absentmindedly licked it off, and the figure disappeared, apparating away. 

“what was that?” jake whirled around and grabbed sunghoon’s elbow in a bruising grip, marching him back the other way to the school doors, glancing from one side to the other. sunghoon remained silent, allowing himself to be dragged along behind jake into the courtyard. he hadn’t wanted to leave his dorm for a _reason_. students parted as jake marched through them to the doors, throwing them open and hurrying inside. 

“what _was_ that, hoon,” he panted, finally releasing sunghoon’s elbow. “have you seen it before?” 

sunghoon remained silent again, staring at the floor, which seemed to be answer enough. 

“why didn’t you tell anyone? _me_?” jake snapped. sunghoon pressed his lips together and fiddled with the lip of the cup. 

“we’re going to see headmaster bae, come on.” jake took off again, still dragging sunghoon, whose side was beginning to ache again. he was dragged along, not protesting, until they reached the mouth of the administrative hall. 

“wait, jake, please.” he tried to shake his arm from jake’s hold. 

“what is it? we need to tell her.” 

“please, don’t. i- i really need to stay in the north tower,” jake furrowed his brow, “i can’t leave.” 

“sunghoon, that was a dementor. you know as well as i do that you’re not equipped to fight one off, besides, what about jay? you’re endangering him, too.” 

“it hasn’t tried to kill me yet. it just watches through the windows sometimes.” 

“that doesn’t mean it’s not going to! sunghoon, please, we need to tell _someone_. i don’t-- i don’t know what’s been going on with you, lately, but i’m a little confused and really worried.” jake whispered as a group of fourth years passed. 

“i’ll be fine. i promise.” sunghoon held out his hand, pinky extended, and jake hesitantly did the same. “if i die, you’re allowed to be mad at me.” 

“i’m already mad at you,” jake huffed, “don’t go back alone. you don’t need to go to classes, since you’re sick, so just wait in the library for me to be done with divination and i can walk you there.” 

sunghoon grudgingly agreed, and ended up nestled in a massive smushy armchair in the back corner of the library. every so often a draft would seep across the floor, and he was beginning to regret not wearing something warmer. 

he tucked his hands into the sleeves of his jumper and brought his knees to his chest to stay warm. he’d found a book on the forbidden forest, and was copying the rough map of it onto a spare page of parchment, as well as any information about the creatures who lived there for when he felt well enough to go back out.

“what are you doing here?” someone asked from behind him. he tilted his head back to see, making eye contact with jay. “i thought you were sick.” 

“i am.” he murmured, closing the book but dogearing the page he’d been on. “i had to leave the dorm.” 

“why? you should be resting.” sunghoon hummed in agreement. 

“uhm. there’s kind of a problem.” 

/////

“...huh?” 

“there’s a dementor. there has been a dementor.” 

“and you didn’t think to tell me?!” jay glared up at him from the beanbag he was sprawled out on. it was difficult to look angry while curled up on a beanbag, but jay pulled it off well enough to be intimidating.

“it wasn’t going to kill you, i think it just wants to kill me!” sunghoon defended himself, drawing his knees closer and resting his chin on them. “you don’t have much to be worried about.”

“i wasn’t worried about _me_ dying, i was worried about you dying, idiot. i know how to handle myself. you can’t even spell your plants back to life, let alone fight off a dementor.”

sunghoon pouted. he could handle himself _just fine, thank you_. besides, spelling things back to life seemed like cheating. 

“i could’ve handled myself,” he said, although sounding unsure to his own ears. 

“did you tell the headmaster, yet?” jay asked.

“no. we can’t.” 

“why not?” 

“we just can’t, okay?!” sunghoon snapped. “i can’t lose the tower.” 

“so in the meantime we’re just living with a dementor outside our door?” jay hissed. a clique of third-year gryffindors passed, staring at them out of the corner of their eyes. “do you know how risky that is?” 

“mhm.” sunghoon sat back against the cool leather of the armchair, nothing left to say. they sat in silence for a few minutes, with sunghoon subtly keeping an eye on jay and jay openly staring at him. he tucked his hands back into his sleeves and pressed them to his cheeks, holding his head up. how long was jake’s divination class? 

“i’m going back,” jay announced, “i’ll try not to die on the way.” sunghoon’s pout deepened as he watched jay leave. 

“he’s not gonna _die_.” he reassured himself (although uneasy), picking at the skin around his fingernails. he glanced around the corner of the library that he’d holed himself up in. he might as well catch up on history of magic, as he had no intentions of spending more time reviewing the last few days with professor kwon than he had to. the man was a walking headache; he hadn’t the slightest idea why professor lee hung out with him so often. 

although he was reading the designated chapters of the textbook, he couldn’t focus, so he took it up to the front desk to check it out. rather than the usual visiting professor at the front desk, it was a familiar second year, one he belatedly recognized from the party last night. 

“hey, sunghoon.” he greeted, spinning around in his rolling chair. 

“hi!” sunghoon grinned, trying to remember where he had filed away the boys name. what was his name, what was his name, _what was his name_. . . 

“ah, you might not remember my name. you can call me ni-ki; all my friends do.” sunghoon’s shoulders sagged in relief. 

“thank you.” 

“you wanna check that out?” ni-ki tilted his head to the textbook sunghoon was clutching to his chest. “oh, hey! i like your sweater, it’s really cute with the flowers and everything.” 

“ah, thanks! it’s vintage,” sunghoon glanced down at his cardigan and tugged at the sleeve, “and yeah, could i please check this out for a week?” 

“of course. here’s your ticket for it.” he had a slight accent, only stumbling over a word here and there. sunghoon was curious as to where he came from but was unsure of whether he could ask. “by the way, you can only renew them once, now, it’s a new policy.”

“okay.” 

“you’re lucky you got out of there when you did, professor kim got there like, immediately after you left.” ni-ki said, not handing the book over the counter yet. sunghoon offered an impartial shrug, hoping it wasn’t suspicious, and glanced at the book, silently asking for it to be handed over. “anyway,” he said abruptly, “it was nice to see you again! i hope we can be friends.” 

“oh, thank you. i hope we can get closer too,” sunghoon nodded and hovered above the front desk for a few awkward moments before stepping back. ni-ki just gave him a reassuring smile and went back to spinning in his chair. 

sunghoon made himself comfy in the beanbag jay had been sitting in, curling up, and tried to get some rest. sleep had been difficult to come by, since he spent most of his time at night staring out the window and pacing the creaky floorboards while jay was passed out on the futon. 

he’d discovered on about the second night they were roommates that he no longer needed to keep quiet when he was sneaking out. jay could probably sleep through the tower caving in. sometimes when sunghoon did end up laying in bed, he could hear him snoring from across the dorm, or babbling in his sleep in other languages. he dimly wondered how many he knew. 

he rested his cheek on his palm and sighed, almost dozing off with the textbook in his lap. he’s unsure of how long it took for jake to arrive, but he roused himself and pinched his cheeks to make himself look more lively. 

“divinations ran late, sorry.” 

“‘s fine.” sunghoon raised one shoulder in a shrug. “jay was here for a sec to keep me company--” could it be called that? “--then he went back to the dorm.” 

“you let him go back on his own?” 

“i explained it to him. i guess he’s just… cool with it.” jake just sighed. 

“i don’t know what to do with you anymore.” 

“you don’t _have_ to do anything with me,” sunghoon pointed out. 

“i feel like your keeper, you know, looking out for you all the time,” jake held the door to the library open for sunghoon regardless. ni-ki waved them out and they stepped into the crush of students in the main hall, hooking elbows to not get separated. they didn’t speak again until they were in the courtyard.

jakes head was on a swivel, scanning any possible hiding place for the dementor as soon as they were outside. 

“i don’t think it’s gonna attack us during school hours,” sunghoon said, “it’d be dumb.” he made it to the tower door in record time, what with jake dragging him by the elbow the whole way. 

“don’t come out at night or i swear to the stars i’ll kill you myself, unless the thing does first.” sunghoon noncommittally hummed and batted the ivy away, intercepting it from swatting jake on their way in. “i mean it.” 

“i didn’t die,” jay said in lieu of greeting, sprawled out on the futon with a bowl of something that smelled sickeningly sweet. 

“good for you. what _is_ that?” sunghoon wrinkled his nose. 

“cereal: lucky charms but only the marshmallows,” jay grinned, “you should try some, they’re in the top cabinet.” 

“...i’m good,” sunghoon declined politely, leading jake into the kitchenette to make some tea. 

“so are we gonna, like, talk about all this?” jay poked his head over the back of the futon, cheeks stuffed with lucky charms with some milk dribbling down his chin like a little kid. sunghoon threw a kitchen rag at him to wipe it off. 

“i don’t want to talk about it,” sunghoon sighed. 

“i don’t know what more there is to say about it,” jake said.

“i have lots of things to say about it, but i’m electing to keep them to myself so i don’t hurt your feelings,” jay shrugged. 

“then we won’t talk about it,” jake decided for them, “problem solved.” he took off his robe and hung it over his shoulder. sunghoon and jay looked at each other and shrugged in agreement. jake reached into the top cabinet and pulled out a flimsy, rainbow cardboard box of the lucky charms jay had been having. he ventured so far to nibble on one of the dry marshmallows before deciding they were too sweet for him and spitting it into the trash. 

“...can i try one? please?” sunghoon hesitantly held out his cupped hands and let jake pour a few into them. 

“they’re kinda… overly sweet,” jay warned. 

“oh, _now_ you say that.” jake complained. 

sunghoon took an experimental nibble while the other two carefully watched his expression. 

“they’re pretty good.” 

“i know, right? my dad sent ‘em.”

“they’re _nasty_ ,” jake gaped, “i can feel my blood sugar spiking.”

“you’re s’posed to; it’s like, the point.” jay flopped back down onto the futon. sunghoon outstretched his hands again and jake grudgingly poured him some more. he hopped over to the radio and switched it on, idly turning the dial until jay screamed at him to stop. 

“this is _fleetwood mac_ ,” he enunciated, jumping off of the couch and starting to hum along. 

“i don’t know who that is,” sunghoon said, but stopped on the channel anyway. a woman’s voice came through the gritty speakers, and jay immediately drowned her out by belting the lyrics himself at a deafening volume. 

“you’ll scare away the dementor, at that rate,” jake snorted. jay ignored him and sang even louder. 

“THUNDER ONLY HAPPENS WHEN IT’S RAININ’,” jay screeched, dementor long forgotten, “PLAYERS ONLY LOVE YOU WHEN THEY’RE PLAYIN’!” 

sunghoon looked on in confused amusement and hummed along to the song, occasionally popping a lucky charm into his mouth. he noted that they were very aptly named. he’d have to ask where they got their name later. jake dropped down to sit on the floor next to him, sipping his tea and eyeing the window behind them. 

“why haven’t you got your wand?” he asked, tapping sunghoon’s empty pocket at his hip. 

“i keep it in my bag. i don’t want it to get broken or anything.” jake hummed in acknowledgement. 

“you should really keep it with you at all times,” he said, “especially now that you’ve got that thing living outside your door.” 

“it’s not like it’ll be much help,” sunghoon grumbled, “i’m awful with it.” 

“you’re not awful,” jake tsk’d. 

jay paused in his singing just to say, “you are,” and jake sent him a withering glare. sunghoon nodded, agreeing. 

“you just need more practice,” jake assured, patting sunghoon’s knee.

sunghoon shoved the entire handful of lucky charms into his mouth and turned the radio up. the song had changed, but unfortunately jay knew this one too. he sang more quietly, now-- still grating on their ears but slightly more tolerable-- and fell back onto the futon again. 

“i think we should talk about it,” jake said. jay stopped singing. sunghoon stopped chewing his mouthful of little marshmallows and turned the radio up even more.

“i don’t wanna,” sunghoon mumbled.

“no...” jay crooned, in time with the new song that had come on the radio. sunghoon dissolved into a fit of giggles and fell into jake’s shoulder.

“hey! hey, hey, this is serious! don’t _laugh!_ ” jake scolded, gently pushing sunghoon off of him. “stop!”

“sorry, sorry. what d’you wanna talk about?” jay regained his composure and stood up straight. sunghoon was still giggling quietly on the windowsill.

“the-- the dementor! right outside!” jake aggressively threw his thumb over his shoulder at the picture window behind him. 

“not here right now.” sunghoon said, trying to chew all of the cereal at once. 

“you’re going to choke,” jay laughed. 

“ _as i was saying_ , we should maybe take some precautions against this thing. like, defense against the dark arts, maybe?” 

sunghoon groaned and tilted his head back, accidentally knocking it against the cold windowpane. “i’m not gonna argue with you, but i hope you know i’ll definitely complain the whole time.” 

“you always do anyway,” jake shrugged. “i’m used to it at this point.” sunghoon pouted again. 

“stop that _right now_ ,” jay warned, grabbing his pillow from beside him on the futon and wielding it in sunghoon’s direction, “or i’ll hit you. seriously, it’s too much.” 

“what?” sunghoon turned to jay, warily eyeing the weaponized pillow but still keeping the pout on his face. 

“both of you, stop. you’re getting sidetracked. i guess i can ask heeseung to teach hoon basic defense against the dark arts.” jake put his hands firmly on his hips, trying to maintain some kind of authority over the other two.

“you look like my mom.” 

“oh, shut up, you’ve been saying that since we were first years,” jake sighed.

“cause you _do_.” 

“do not.” 

“do too.”

“do not--”

“okay, so we’ve got all this figured out now, right?” jay asked, interrupting their back and forth. “cause i kinda wanna listen to a prairie home companion tonight on the radio.” 

////

they end up returning to sunghoon’s tower after dinner (some kind of stew) and hurrying across the courtyard in a huddle, staying silent until they’re safely inside and sunghoon has anxiously triple-checked that he’s locked the doors and windows and closed all of the blinds. he pities his plants.

“you said you wanted to listen to something earlier?” jake asked, wrapping his arms around sunghoons waist and dragging him down onto the futon on top of him. sunghoon was too tired to retaliate and just rested his head at an uncomfortable angle on jakes shoulder. 

“yeah, it’s an old radio show i found a few nights ago,” jay shambled over to the radio and brought it over, setting it on the floor in front of them and carefully tuning it. jay made himself comfortable, pressed as far away from jake and sunghoon as possible on the opposite end of the futon. 

“i’m cold,” sunghoon sleepily announced, pouting again and forgetting his roommate’s earlier threat, “gimme a blanket.” his knitted throw hit him in the face a few seconds after, courtesy of jay. he hummed in lieu of saying thank you and arranged it so that they’re all covered, huddling further under it so that only his eyes were peeking out. the tower got freezing at night, especially during this time of year between winter and spring, a damp sort of cold that sank into your bones and made it seem impossible to crawl out from under the blankets in the morning. 

“i guess he’s staying here, tonight.” jay tossed his head in jake’s direction. the boy was already snoring, his chin resting on top of sunghoon’s head. 

“mm. i might fall asleep soon, too,” sunghoon warned, kicking his feet out onto jay’s lap and wiggling his toes to keep them from falling asleep. the static cut out before jay could reply, and a mans voice crackled through into the silence of the dorm, introducing the guests to slow country music. 

“i didn’t know you were into old westerns…?” sunghoon blearily asked a few minutes in, on the verge of dozing off. “you’re weird.” 

“ _i’m_ weird? look at yourself, buddy.” jay weakly slapped sunghoon’s leg, which had, to his chagrin, fallen asleep. this sent a shockwave of pins and needles up his leg, so he lazily kicked back to get revenge. jay didn’t bother retaliating, so they laid in silence and listened to jake snoring and the radio show host until they dozed off. 

////

sunghoon did not wake up to his tea kettle whistling; he woke up to the uncomfortably distinct feeling that he was being watched. he blinked his eyes open, squinting against the light, and glanced around in a panic. rather than the dementor perched outside the window, pressed up against the glass as usual, he was just met with jay’s curious eyes, still puffy due to how early it was in the morning. 

he hummed, voice still too raspy from sleep to talk, and stretched like a cat, pointing his toes and yawning. he pointedly ignored the awkwardness hanging between them. 

“do you want some lucky charms?” jay averted his gaze to a wilting pot of daisies on the bookshelf. 

“for breakfast?” sunghoon asked, in disbelief. 

“it’s breakfast food,” jay shrugged, carefully taking sunghoons feet off of his lap and setting them back down as he stood up, covering them with a corner of the blanket.

sunghoon tentatively nodded and yawned again, watching over the back of the futon as jay puttered around in the kitchenette for a minute, returning with two small bowls of the cereal. 

“jake won’t wake up for a few more hours,” sunghoon took the bowl with both hands and set it in his lap, “so i’m going back to bed after this. i’m still sleepy.” he sipped at the milk, already sugar-saturated, and made a face. 

jay was shovelling spoonfuls of his own cereal into his mouth, finished with the entire bowl within a minute. he took sunghoon’s bowl and set them in the sink (one of sunghoon’s pet peeves: leaving dishes to be done later, but he was already forgiven) and started studying, turning the radio to the old country station and setting sunghoon’s feet back where they had been on his lap. 

he drifted in and out of sleep, only waking up for a few brief moments to roll over or stretch until jake abruptly woke up. 

“did i sleep here? i slept here?” he asked, looking around with a comically surprised expression. “when’s class? are we late?” 

“we’re not late; it’s like, five.” jay answered. “you can go back to sleep if you want--”

“i’ve gotta get back,” jake pushed sunghoon off of him like a ragdoll and sunghoon just flopped back down onto the futon, staring at the ceiling. “thanks for letting me stay here, hoon, but i’ve gotta get back to my dorm, bye--” and with that, jake disappeared out the front door, not even bothering to check his hair.

“...you’re welcome?” sunghoon answered belatedly, tilting his head at the door. 

“you can go back to sleep again; i’ll wake you up for classes.” 

“i’ve gotta get ready for class and eat something other than lucky charms.” sunghoon wrapped the blanket around himself so that only his face and a tuft of hair was visible. “by the way, d’you know where they got their name? are they really lucky?” 

“yep,” jay nodded, amused by his genuinely hopeful expression. sunghoon hummed pensively and stood, still wrapped in the blanket, and shuffled over to his armoire to get dressed. 

“what are you studying for?” he asked, solely to keep the conversation going and stop the awkwardness from seeping in. 

“transfiguration.” 

“who do you have?” 

“professor hwang.” jay answered shortly. sunghoon chalked it up to the fact that he was busy studying. maybe he just didn’t want to be bothered. he changed into a warm outfit and tied his ascot around his neck for today-- not in the mood to fumble with the tie-- then looked around for his robe. where had he put it last night? the hook he usually kept it on was empty. he peered around the wall of potted plants and scanned the main area. not a hint of the worn black fabric. 

“are you looking for something?” jay finally glanced up from his notes.

“my robe…?” 

“do you think jake might’ve accidentally taken it with him?” 

“oh…” sunghoon sighed. “well, i suppose i can wear my old one.” he pivoted back around and dug through the box under his bed, finally finding the robe from when he was a second year and holding it up. it smelled musty and barely reached his ankles, but it would have to do. he silently cursed the second year growth spurt and tugged it over his head. 

“how is it?” he did a little twirl, showcasing the robe for jay, who gave it a brief check-over and gave a thumbs up. 

“i usually throw my old robes out.” 

“i like to keep mine for the sentimental value,” sunghoon shuffled over to the kitchenette and set some water on to boil, “now come have something other than lucky charms so we can get to class on time.” 

jay turned the radio on, abandoned his books on the futon, and sat on the counter-- another one of sunghoon’s pet peeves-- but he was forgiven again.


	4. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sunghoon has a rough day (or so he thought)

“good morning.” sunoo dipped his head in greeting as soon as sunghoon bounced up the lecture hall stairs. he was having a good morning so far, and jay ended up buying him a bagel from the great hall on their way to class (the way he liked it, with nothing but cold cream cheese slathered on it).

“hi,” he sighed, falling into his chair and looking around, “is yoon late again?” 

“both of them, this time. at this rate they’ll be fired.” 

“oh. d’you want to go over the charm we learned last week, then?” sunghoon asked shyly, already steeling himself for sunoo’s rejection. the younger boy just raised his eyebrows at him in suspicion. 

“sure,” he responded, posing it more as a question than an answer, “you never ask. this feels like a trap, but i don’t know how.” 

“it’s not a _trap_ ,” sunghoon retorted, “i’m just extending an olive branch after yesterday.” 

“are you usually this hot and cold?” sunoo scoffed, sticking his nose up again in his trademark mannerism. sunghoon shrugged and started whispering the incantation under his breath, practicing the wand movement and facing the class-provided doll sitting limply on his desk. “it kinda got on my nerves in the beginning of the trimester.” 

“sorry,” sunghoon said, really not apologetic at all, and paying little attention to the conversation at this point. he’d gotten the blonde dolls head to twitch! 

his magic had never been great, and no matter how he practiced, he could never completely achieve what other students could. it infuriated him to no end to know that he was inferior to every student attending hogwarts,so much so that anything at all was treated as the greatest victory. even the gangly little first year who sat in the front of the class was better than him.

sunoo, however, looked unimpressed with his progress. 

“what happened yesterday? bring whatever it was back, or something,” he requested.

“i don’t know if i can. if you’ve been paying attention at all throughout the trimester, you’d know i’m awful.” 

“oh, i know, but i want to see you do it again.” sunoo sat back in his desk chair and gave him an expectant look. sunghoon scrunched up his face and tightened the ascot around his neck. sunoo, now that he thought of it, quite reminded him of veruca salt from charlie and the chocolate factory, if only a slight bit less irritating. 

sunghoon had learned that he originated from a wealthy family that lived in the secluded irish cliffside, in a kitschy mansion, with an abundance of house elves at their beck and call. that explained the sense of natural superiority he imposed onto everyone around him, and especially the feeling of crushing inferiority sunghoon was feeling at the moment. he shook his head and turned back to the doll, concentrating and praying to whatever deity was listening to let him just have this one thing and rub it in sunoo’s tiny, stuck-up, bratty face. 

it would seem the deity hotline was occupied. the doll didn’t even quiver.

“well?” sunoo asked, staring pointedly at the doll, and suddenly sunghoon felt regretful that he’d even asked sunoo to work together in the first place. he sat back and shoved his wand back into its designated little pouch so angrily he thought he might’ve broken it. upon closer inspection, there was a new little chip, revealing the shimmering texture of the unicorn hair inside. now he’d have to pay a visit to olivander’s. 

“i’m so sorry,” he mumbled to it, carefully placing it back into the pouch.

“is it just a you thing,” sunoo asked, “or does that happen to everyone?” 

“it’s just a me thing,” sunghoon admitted and slumped onto his desk, staring at the door as if he could will professor yoon to walk through it. 

“interesting,” sunoo effectively ended the conversation, leaving sunghoon to seethe in his seat while he filed his nails. sunghoon had read that you’re not meant to pick at your cuticles, so he politely informed sunoo of the fact and received a haughty scoff in return. he didn’t try talking again. let sunoo have brittle fingernails if he pleased. 

mr. choi arrived to class before the professor, as usual, and just stood expectantly before them for an awkward spell before professor yoon staggered in, blonde hair amuss and glasses skewed. 

“ah… yes. hello, class.” he bowed, stumbling to the left a few steps and playing it off by leaning on the doorframe. 

“are you feeling unwell?” mr. choi asked. 

“fine, thank you.” 

“do you need to sit down?” 

“...yes, that would be nice.” professor yoon wobbled over to the big rolling chair behind his desk, gait akin to that of a newborn colt. mr. choi at least had the capacity to look concerned. 

“i suppose i’ll lead the class for now while professor yoon… recovers.” 

“great.” sunoo muttered sarcastically, getting his wand back out and twirling it in such a way that it summoned a piece of cinnamon gum from his bag. he was really just rubbing it in, now, sunghoon smoldered. 

he made valiant attempts to ignore sunoo’s various unnecessary expenditures of magic, averting his gaze and keeping it fixed on his own notes, and briefly on mr. choi’s vaguely troubled expression as professor yoon fell asleep. sunoo was obviously just trying to get a reaction out of him, using his wand to even levitate his pencil into his hand.

“just… start on notes for the time being,” mr. choi ordered.

“what do you want us to take notes on?” someone asked. 

“...anything?” the class nodded in acknowledgement and started working. the class was silent save for professor yoon’s occasional snores.

“choi…” professor yoon groaned, tossing his arm in the assistant teacher's direction. mr. choi hurried over and crouched beside him, having a hushed conversation under the scrutiny of the full class. 

sunghoon was hyper aware of each and every one of sunoo’s little movements to his left, the scratching of his pen on parchment, the occasional heavy sigh when he didn’t know the answer to a question, and the quiet ticking of his gold-engraved watch. they studied in a completely encompassing awkward silence for a long spell, trying too hard to ignore each other. 

“everyone?” mr. choi called to gather the classes attention, “we’re doing partner work again just to pass the time. review tarantallegra with your partner and a pencil, or something.” sunghoon inwardly groaned and looked at sunoo from the corner of his eye, who looked like the cat that got the cream, even going so far as to steeple his fingers under his chin. 

“well, park,” he started, “i guess you’ve gotta work on it, after all.” he tossed a mechanical pencil onto his desk and waved a hand at it, “go on.” 

sunghoon frowned and cast a variety of colorful hexes on kim sunoo (in his head, of course). practicing an immense amount of self-restraint, he turned to face his seatmate again without letting his irritation filter through his expression. sunoo stared back at him with an inscrutable look. 

this time he just completely wipes his mind, trying to think about absolutely nothing except for the charm. ignoring sunoo’s expectant look proves to be more difficult than he thought, but he swishes his newly chipped wand and whispers the incantation. the pencil wiggles a few times, as if placating him, and settles again. 

“try bigger movements,” sunoo advised, watching closely. sunghoon grudgingly acknowledged the fact that _maybe_ that was part of the problem, then made the correction. the pencil wobbled a bit more, this time, but definitely not as much as the other day.

“you’ll have to have this sorted by april or you’ll crash and burn on your o.w.l,” sunoo reminded him, sitting back in his chair from where he’d been perched on the edge. sunghoon slumped over onto his desk and shut his eyes, remaining in that position until mr. choi called their attention. 

“i’m dismissing you all a bit early so i can drag him to the infirmary,” mr. choi suddenly announced, pointing to the slumped-over figure that was the professor. 

the class gave a collective cheer and darted for the door before he could take it back, streaming out and escaping as quickly as they could before mr. choi could assign homework, either. sunghoon trailed after sunoo, feeling ashamed for acting so immaturely earlier but too stubborn to apologize for it. he hoisted his bag higher up on his shoulder, patted down the wrinkles from his robes, and tightened the pale green ascot around his neck again before stepping carefully into the hall. 

he glanced at the caged clock at the end of the hall. mr. choi had released them almost fifteen minutes early, and he didn’t have any interest in showing up to history of magic any earlier than he had to. he might as well return the favor and go wait for jay’s class to be released. he tilted his head in indecision before sidestepping the other students to hurry down jay’s hall. 

the professor's lecture could be heard from all the way down the hall, even though the classroom door was closed. it was already mind-numbingly boring, even though sunghoon had barely caught the tail end of it. 

“--broaden your minds and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" the professor was emphasizing, only to be met with groans from students. sunghoon got onto his tiptoes to peer in through the stained glass door. a few first years who sat in the front row spotted him and held up a pre-written s.o.s note, pleading with him. he gave them a sympathetic look and scanned the rest of the class for his roommate. 

he found him in the second-to-last row, resting his chin on his palm and staring resolutely out the window. sunghoon huffed and turned to lean against the wall and listen to the professor drone on for a few more minutes. 

“there are nine ways to determine the future; can any of you tell me what they are?” the professors question was met with a long silence. “i’ll start calling on you, if none of you answer,” the instructor threatened, audibly annoyed. more silence. 

“alright, fine. jaemin,” he asked, “can you please tell me one method of divination?” 

“smoke patterns?” 

“yes, that’s one of them… hm. let’s see… ni-ki! what’s another one?” 

“crystal balls,” ni-ki’s familiar voice groaned. sunghoon peered inside again and spotted him, slumped over face down on his desk. 

“excellent. there are seven more. sooyoung?” 

“astrology and horoscope charts…?” she guessed. the professor made a pleased noise and wrote it down. 

‘and… let's go with jongseong for the fourth.” jay whipped his head around, trying to understand whatever it was they were doing. his seatmate whispered something under his breath, probably supplying him with an answer. sunghoon had almost forgotten jay wasn’t his roommates' government name. 

“...tea dregs?” he said, obviously uncertain. 

“yes. please pay attention.” jay gave a noncommittal nod and turned to face the professor, but his gaze caught on sunghoon, still on his tiptoes and straining to peer through the window. he grinned and gave a tiny little wave. sunghoon waved back and dropped back onto his level feet, bouncing on the balls of his feet. they were a bit sore from balancing on them for all that time. 

he leaned against the wall and plucked his wand from his bag, inspecting the little missing shard again. it was down to the core, exposing some of the unicorn hair inside (which did give off a pretty sheen, but was still upsetting to look at). the professors musings provided decent white noise for him to sulk to, practicing the charm over and over again on his ascot, which he had untied from around his neck and set on the ground. 

so far, his only point of pride was the fact that he’d gotten one of the corners to flutter. it might’ve just been a draft running over the floor, but he preferred to believe it was his own doing. 

“that’ll do it for today. class dismissed,” the classroom door flew open, and sunghoon clutched his ascot to his chest to save it from being trampled by a stampede of underclassmen. he stood again, tucking his wand into the designated pocket in his robe, and waited for jay to emerge. 

“hi,” he greeted, trying to tie his ascot again, “how was class?” 

“it was like watching paint dry. i watched quidditch practice the entire time, as i’m sure you saw. how was your class? you’re in charms, right?” 

“awful; i chipped my wand,” he provided it for jay to look at. “don’t laugh,” he whined. jay just snorted and handed it back. 

“how did you manage to do that?” 

“i got upset.” 

“in _charms_?” 

“mm-hmm, my seatmate is a thorn in my side,” sunghoon huffed, “always rubbing my nose in the fact that i can’t do anything.” 

“sounds awful,” jay said earnestly. 

“it _is_ , he’s so…” sunghoon couldn’t say the words he wanted to in the halls, so he settled on a small frustrated noise instead. jay just looked amused. “wait, you didn’t deny the fact that i can’t do anything,” he accused, “that’s what friends are _for_ , y’know, helping you deny reality.” 

“sorry,” jay said, “he’s definitely wrong.” 

“thank you.” 

“that’s what friends are for.” sunghoon bumped him with his elbow and huffed again. 

“you’re becoming a thorn in my side, too,” he pouted, and jay made that unreadable face again. it looked like confusion and frustration and something else all wrapped into one expression; tugging at the corners of his mouth and scrunching up his eyes. 

“i won’t be stuck there for much longer; just until the common room mess is fixed,” he assured. sunghoon felt a bit sad at that, but pushed it aside. 

“i’ll go back to staying holed up listening to dolly parton all day, then,” he grinned.

“the dream.” jay glanced at his neck and made the unreadable face again before looking back up to make eye contact. sunghoon tilted his head.

“you took your ascot off?” 

“oh,” sunghoon paused, running his hand over his bare neck to confirm it, “yeah, i was practicing a charm on it earlier, while i was waiting for you.” he fished it out of his pocket, wrinkly and crumpled up, and tried to tie it around his neck again. 

“is it straight?” 

“yeah,” jay hummed, already beginning to walk again. sunghoon skipped to catch up, adjusting the green silk to make sure jay wasn’t lying. 

“i think i tied it wrong,” he sighed.

“it’ll be fine,” jay said, hurrying down a hallway to the left. sunghoon frowned and waved at him before he disappeared into the crush of other students. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“your tie-thingy is crooked,” jungwon pointed out as soon as sunghoon sat down. 

“oh.” 

“...can i fix it for you? it’s kinda bothering me.” sunghoon paused for a moment before turning around and letting jungwon unknot it. the younger boy tsk’d in disapproval and sunghoon felt like he was being scolded by someone much older. he realized jungwon had that quality about him; a certain confidence that made him seem far more mature. 

“you’re good now. did none of your friends tell you?” jungwon patted his back to let him know he was done. sunghoon shook his head. “they’re bad friends, then. it looks a lot better now.” jungwon complimented his work and grinned, turning back to face the door in time for professor kwon to stride in. 

“class!” he clapped, “i’ve got good news and i’ve got bad news. which do you want first?” 

“bad news first! then the good news can cheer us up.” jungwon requested, folding his hands on his desk in front of him. sunghoon stayed quiet. 

“alright. bad news: i accidentally set all of my lesson plans on fire. good news! this means you don’t have to do anything for class.” 

“how did you manage that?” professor kim from next door poked his head through the adjoining office door. professor kwon turned red as a tomato and gestured for a fifth year in the back to shut the door. “answer the question--” he was cut off by the door hitting him in the face as it shut.

“none of _his_ business. i really need to consider sound-proofing that,” he mused, “i’ve gotten a few noise complaints so far this year.” 

“how did you manage to set your plans on fire?” a lanky ravenclaw parroted professor kim’s question. 

“oh, yeah. y’know how the gubraithian fire is right next to the desks in the administration hall? i tipped it over and it burned all of my parchment to a crisp like that,” he snapped his fingers, “poof! they were gone. they’re still on fire, cause the gubraithian fire never extinguishes-- STOP LAUGHING AT ME, MINGYU.” professor kwon screamed upon hearing professor kim giggling on the other side of the wall. “anyway, i guess i can take all of you on a little field trip.” 

so the class all formed a chain, holding hands like they used to in preschool, and shuffled down the stairs to the administrative hallway. jungwon’s hand was freezing and he held onto sunghoon with a death grip, as opposed to the gryffindor behind him, whose hand was nearly dripping with sweat. 

“this is the part where we need to be quiet.” professor kwon said very loudly, holding his index finger to his mouth and creeping down the hallway almost theatrically. sunghoon tiptoed along, looking around. it became apparent that professor kwon was trying to avoid disturbing any of the other professors in the administrative hall who were studying and reviewing their own not-on-fire lesson plans. there was an entire table burning in the corner, now, but none of the professors looked concerned. 

“here.” professor kwon stopped and let everyone form a loose circle around the table. sunghoon took his wand from his pocket and poked at a charred ball of paper with it. 

“this is depressing,” a hufflepuff said. the class gave a collective nod. 

“so anyway, does anyone know the science behind the gubraithian fire?” professor kwon asked. jungwon’s hand shot up and he started explaining it before he was even called on. sunghoon tuned him out and looked around the hall. professor lee was over in the corner, disinterestedly watching them and licking the foil lid of his yogurt. sunghoon crept back from the circle of students and hurried over. 

“i was here when it happened,” professor lee said, pulling the chair out for sunghoon to sit, “it was hilarious.” he proceeded to explain how professor kwon screamed, jumped up and down, and tried to put the fire out. “he tried his water bottle, he tried batting it out with his robe-- that’s why he’s not in it today-- and then he gave up.” 

“where were you during all of this?” sunghoon asked. 

“right here. i’ve only got twenty minutes off for lunch and i’m not about to waste it trying to put out an eternal fire, like an idiot.” professor lee rolled his eyes and crumpled up his foil. “anyway, tell me about your day.” 

“i broke my wand, i have bad friends, and i need tutoring for charms.” 

“sounds like a normal day,” professor lee said, “and i might be able to get someone to fix your wand for you if it’s not too bad.” 

sunghoon got it out of his pocket again and handed it over. professor lee poked at it for a moment. 

“this is almost nothing,” he scoffed, “it’ll be done in like, an hour. here, i’ll get you out of class, come on.” he got up and marched over to professor kwon, tapping him on the shoulder and interrupting a tangent about how there are consequences to every action. 

“oh! hi, jihoon.” professor kwon spun around with a little flourish.

“yeah, hi. i need to borrow him for a bit.” 

“oh.” professor kwon looked at sunghoon, then across the table where he’d been standing. it was apparent that he hadn’t even noticed sunghoon had left. “that’s fine.” 

“thanks.” professor lee set off again. jungwon squinted at him, giving him a curious look. “come on, we’ve got to hurry or i’ll keep you from your next class.” although professor lee’s legs were significantly shorter than sunghoon’s own, he walked so quickly that it was difficult to catch up. sunghoon was somewhere between walking and jogging, and his ascot was tickling his neck. 

“who do you think can fix by wand?” he asked, once professor lee slowed down a bit. 

“my cousin. she teaches arithmancy; professor park.” he led sunghoon down a maze of side hallways and down staircases into the first floor, where he came to an abrupt stop at the first door and knocked violently for entrance. the door flew open, and an angry woman stood in the doorway, eyes glaring behind a pair of oversized glasses. her class seemed just as annoyed as she was. 

“we were watching titanic,” she hissed, grabbing the two of them and yanking them inside by their collars, “you could’ve gotten me fired, you idiot.” sunghoon felt like a deer in headlights under the scrutiny of the class. oh, there was jay and jake. he hadn’t known they shared a class. he tilted his head for a moment and gave a wavering smile to jake, then a smaller one to jay, still feeling betrayed that he hadn’t told him to fix his ascot.

“what do you want?” professor park asked, still annoyed with her cousin. professor lee handed her sunghoon’s wand, then a wad of money that he procured from his robe pocket. she stared at them, not accepting them yet. 

“please?” professor lee pleaded, giving her a wide-eyed look. she scoffed and snatched both of them, turning her attention to sunghoon. she started the film again. sunghoon watched for a few moments, enraptured, before professor park tugged his robe to get his attention. 

“what did you do?” 

“i just put it into my bag too roughly,” he sighed, feeling sorry again. 

“listen, kid, you don’t have to be so broken up about it. it’s not that bad, and it’ll be fixed by the time class is over. just sit there,” she pointed to a rickety wicker chair in the corner, “and watch the film.” 

the film was surprisingly entertaining. sunghoon curled up and rested his chin on his knees to watch, understanding almost none of what was happening but still having a good time. the rest of the class hadn’t paid much attention to him, which he was grateful for, and he fiddled with the edge of his ascot as the movie went on. 

professor park would occasionally curse and mutter under her breath while she was working, but she ended up getting his wand back sooner than he thought. 

“here,” she said, extending it to him, “be careful with it, alright? i blinged it up a little, too.” she grinned, and sunghoon stared down at the new addition to his wand: gold glitter dusted over it. he blew on it, but none came off. 

“i put it on there with elmer’s glue and some resin. enjoy!” she patted his shoulder and went to stand in front of the class. “class is almost over! what’s the oath?” she held a hand up to her ear and leaned in the students direction. 

“don’t talk about possibly confiscatable materials outside of the classroom,” the class intoned. professor park prompted sunghoon to say the same, so he did, stammering it out before he got to leave. he fell in line in between jay and jake in the hall, a little bit smushed between them. 

“dude, she arts and crafted your wand.” jay laughed, plucking it from his hand and picking at the glitter. jake placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. 

“i kinda like it,” he admitted, “it’s pretty. oh! can you please explain the film you were watching? i only saw the middle part.” 

“well,” jay started, “that can wait until later. you’re totally gonna cry.” 

“no, i’m not,” sunghoon retorted. 

“yeah you will.” jake nodded sagely. 

“if i didn’t cry reading wuthering heights, i won’t cry about an old american film.” 

“you definitely cried reading wuthering heights,” jake unhelpfully supplied, “i saw you. real tears.” 

“that never happened.” sunghoon said breezily. 

“that happened.” 

“nuh-uh.”

“uh-huh. you even came over and then whined about catherine and cathy for _at least_ two hours, then you made me make hot chocolate for you because you ‘were so dehydrated from crying’. do you want me to provide more details? because i can.” jake grinned. 

“that’s enough detail,” sunghoon muttered. 

“titanic is the sob story to end all sob stories. everyone cries watching it. sometimes my sister cries just remembering it.” 

“that sounds awful,” sunghoon shuddered, “i don’t wanna watch it anymore.” 

“we have to, now. it’s too late,” jay grinned toothily. there was a short spell of silence between them before jake broke it. 

“oh, hoon! i just remembered i accidentally took your robe this morning. i’m really sorry; i don’t know how i could’ve gotten the colors mixed up.” 

“it’s fine, you were probably too tired to notice it. you left really fast. like, _really_ fast.” 

“i didn’t want to be late.” 

“it was, like, five.” jay laughed. 

“yeah, you missed out on lucky charms. and the rare sight of jay studying,” sunghoon giggled. jay looked betrayed.

“it’s not that rare, you’re just never around when i study,” jay protested.

“i’m always around the dorm, and that was the second time i’ve ever seen you even look at your textbooks.” 

“...fine.”

“anyway, you can just come around and pick up your robe after classes! i washed it for you cause it smelled kinda musty. like sweat and stress and everything,” jake wrinkled his nose. 

“thanks,” sunghoon said drily.

“sure thing.” jake gave him a salute and disappeared down a side hall. 

“i’ve gotta go, too. but i’ll ask professor park for the titanic dvd for us.” jay handed his newly bedazzled wand back and backed into another side hall. 

“bye! good luck,” sunghoon waved and very carefully tucked his wand away. his day wasn’t going too badly, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE >__< school is rlly kicking my butt n it's hard 2 keep up :[ anyway ; if u wanna contact me or yell w me abt the story my twt is @hwanflrt !!! i dunno how to link stuff yet :0 
> 
> anyway ! pls leave a kudo/kudos (whats the singular?) if u enjoyed or lemme know in a comment if u wanna see more of a certain character!! and yes i know i mentioned heeseung like twice so far n he has had one line . i'm so sorry 2 all of u heeseungers !!

**Author's Note:**

> pls leave comments if u have any questions or anything 2 say ! if u want to see more of a certain character lmk :D


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